Knights of the Old Republic: The Sear of Time
by Zachara
Summary: The story of Master Corporal Falcara Zalo and her adventures in the Old Republic. Yes, she's bi. Rating change to M for future content... Chapter 4 is FINALLY up.
1. Chap 1: The Spire

_Disclaimer: All of this is not mine. The universe belongs to George Lucas (lmao! Yay pun). This is Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic video game material with my own twists._

_Author's note:_

_Enjoy. I'll update when I can._

Knights of the Old Republic:

_**Part One**_

The Hidden Force

Knights of the Old Republic:

_**Part One**_

The Hidden Force

"_You are a redeemer. You are a conqueror. You are a champion. You are a villain. You are all of these things and more; yet you are __**nothing**__. In the end you are neither a servant of light nor a harbinger of darkness. Unique, yet cursed. Blessed, yet doomed. Forever alone - it is your fate as the Force wills it – and that path can never be changed though you would fight it with all your power, skill, life and love. Thus stands the way of the true Chosen One of the Jedi and the true Sitha'ry of Old Legends. Know that death is not the end. That through you leave though its gates or any other, those you leave behind will not forget what you have done – whether their memories of you are terrible or wonderful. Time will dull the pain you feel through the ages of your wanderings. The ocean of the Force has a swift tide and many challenges in its waves. Steer true, steer strong and above all know that __**I**__ will watch over you in hopes of seeing what the Force wills in such a person."_**- **Translation from Dureth'ki-noandil's Scrolls last seen on the Jedi Planet of Ossus

Chapter 1: The Spire's Fall

_It was dark. No light came through the cold place in which she stood. The cool metal flooring that she tapped as her slow walk gave way into the empty place._

"_Death comes!" _

"Who are you?"

"_Death comes! Be wary, he comes..."_

"Where are you?"_ The voice came from all sides. She could see nothing, yet it felt like there was a presence standing all around._

"_So much confusion... You know not yourself." _

_A feeling very much like a sigh wisped past Falcara's head._

_She turned and felt like her back was on fire. An unbearable pain shoved itself into her spine and through her mind. She fell to the metal floor, rolled over and squinted through the pain at a shape in the darkness above her and screamed in fear._

Master Corporal Falcara Zalo shot upright in bed. She was shaking. Her sheets and her shoulder long ebony black hair were brimmed with sweat. She swallowed with her throat dry and her breath ragged and spent. Reluctantly and with a grunt of effort, she rolled out of bed and walked to the refresher-room on the far side of her accommodation while rubbing the back of her neck with one hand and stretching the other.

She was tall woman, or rather taller than most of the women in the service of the Galactic Republic, and had less bulky figure than some. She walked into the refresher-room and pressed a button on the sidewall which turned on a small light in front of a hydro-synthesizing device and flipped a mirror out of the wall in front of it. She staggered up to this mirror and rubbed her green-blue eyes as they adjusted to the light. The synthesized water that came out of the tap was enough to get off the sweat on her face, neck and hair. She sloshed most of it onto her narrow face, lent on the table in front of the synthesizer and sighed.

_I hate that dream._

She'd been having it ever since she'd been transferred to this _damned_ Republic battleship. What use did the_ Endar Spire_ have for a run-down scout from the outer-rim anyway? Why did _she_ among all of the other millions of soldiers, including the ones who were actually stationed closer to Coruscant, _have_ to get picked to baby-sit a Jedi?

Falcara scowled at her unnatural negativity towards the young Jedi Bastilla. She wasn't as much of a piss-off as some of the other Jedi the Master Corporal had met and she had to give the woman credit for at least trying to help out around the ship. It wasn't exactly helping moral. More often than not, Bastilla would end up just annoying everyone in her vicinity – especially Falcara. In fact, every time she saw the Jedi she had to stifle a cringe or a frown like the rest of the crew was visibly doing when the Jedi wasn't looking. Bastilla was talkative with everyone and so far Falcara had managed to avoid being targeted directly. However, it was harder to do that with the rest of Bastilla's entourage of Jedi who had come abroad when they had first set off from Coruscant. They hummed around Bastilla like little pet gizka; following her wherever she went and encouraged personnel to talk with her. Eluding them was a challenge sometimes, but so far Falcara had managed quite well for herself and for many of her close friends by making excuses that their work was needed elsewhere. She often received thanks after the fact save for the few odd people like her roommate Trask.

She shook her head at his devout loyalty to the Jedi and their ways. Sure, Jedi were protectors of the peace and have done a great many things for the Republic as great knights of justice, but Falcara always felt a sense of resentment in their presence. They just seemed so disconnected from the rest of the galaxy, yet claimed they were in tune with the very power that made it exist. Falcara liked comparing them to droids every once and a while. They showed no emotion and always did as ordered without any complaint. Nothing was too hard for a Jedi.

She sighed again and looked in the mirror. Her nose, she was pleased to see, was healing faster than expected. A Gamorian brute had clipped her in the face at a bar a week before when she was on Coruscant waiting for the Jedi council to get their precious Bastilla abroad the_ Endar Spire_. Her nose hadn't been broken, but having the butt of an axe-like weapon thrust into your face leaves a nice juicy cut when it wants to. She ran her finger along the small but deep scab that was slowly turning into white scar tissue and shook her head at her own stupidity. She'd realized very early in her life that, Republic Military education or no, she was an idiot – and this realization had saved her much grief. There were people with more experience and ability that could beat her to bantha fodder in a millisecond if that was their wish. She did like being in charge though and from the reactions of those who happened to be under her command at the time; she knew that she did a good job of it. Captain Nadair kept hinting at her eventual promotion before she left for the _Spire_, but orders were orders and she wasn't helping the Republic if she didn't follow them just because of a potential rank augmentation.

This new war, the "Jedi Civil War" was what they were calling it now, was slowly crippling a once proud galactic unification of planets. The Mandalorian Wars were only a few years back and this new enemy was fracturing what was left.

Falcara shuttered. She'd fought the Mandalorians, but they were nothing compared to these Sith. She wasn't to sure of how they came to be, or who exactly their leader was –other than that he was some kind of Rogue Jedi-, but she had been there when the planet Bakura was taken with a full Republic fleet was in its atmosphere and a large contingency of foot-soldiers on its surface.

She'd barely gotten out alive. The Sith were ruthless and, she was revolted to find, most of them had been Republic soldiers at one point – turned by this Dark Jedi into his own private army. She'd even killed someone she'd fought with in the Mandalorian Wars-

She bit her lip at the thought. She always hoped in a small corner of her mind that Lieutenant Sylian Dahr, who had saved her life twice while in the service, had somehow been deceived into joining the Sith, but the face she'd seen on him when he charged forward through the barricade without his helmet kept gnawing away at that corner and forced her to admit the cold truth: He had enjoyed killing every single soldier as he rushed up the street with a full squad behind him that day. An obscene joy was across his face even at the moment of his death when she had aimed a blaster bolt at his forehead.

She looked at her reflection in the mirror. _No one is safe form them anymore,_ she thought washing another round of water onto her face and drying it quickly. _Not even me if Dahr crossed the floor that easily._

She shook her head, turned off the light and marched out to turn on a new light in the small closet next to the refresher-room. Inside was a nicely pressed two part Republic military uniform. It was held to the back wall by four very small but strong magnets. Below that uniform was an automated drawer and atop it were seated some long black boots. She cocked her head sideways at the uniform, smiled and pulled it off its magnets. It was a standard issue military uniform with the Republic infantry colors; magenta and dark grey. The magenta lined the pants along the seam and the chest along the centre while the dark grey took over everywhere else.

She undressed out of her sleeping gear, which was a light shirt and slacks, pressed the touch reactive drawer and watched as it opened by itself. On one side where some undershirts and thermal pants, which she wouldn't wear for a long while since there was something wrong with the cooling system down where she would report for morning drill and briefing, and on the other side where standard grey socks and underwear and three pairs of dark grey gloves. She quickly put the underwear and socks on then donned her uniform, gloves and boots.

She tapped the toe of each boot once on the floor each to make sure they fit right and made her way to a metal, magnetically locked footlocker at the foot of her bed. She entered the code onto a keypad and heard the two clicks as both latches released on either side of the locker flipped its lid open. Inside were two pairs of magenta wrist and knee guards, a magenta and dark grey helmet with a right eye targeting visor attached to it and a matching tactical-vest with an assorted number of gear and utilities in it. In its larger pouches on the sides were ear-pugs, an environmental jacket, a survival kit, an emergency communications kit, some small med packs, a water bottle and a blaster barrel extender in three easy-put-together parts. A vibro-bayonet, which could attach to any blaster rifle with an extended barrel, was strapped to the vest's front while six empty blaster cell pouches – for she was neither in a hostile environment at the moment, nor had a blaster rifle to load the cells into – on either side of the bayonet. Lastly, in a little pouch just above the upper right cell-pouch nearest to her neck, was a personal communicator the size of her thumb.

She quickly began putting the tack-vest on first, making sure all the straps were tight enough and checking the blaster resistant alloy manually for cracks or unnatural kinks. She stopped suddenly and tapped the metal in the vest. She raised an inquisitive eyebrow and unclipped the edge of the vest's outer layer to see the malleable metal inside.

"I'll be a Wookie's furry aunt," she laughed silently. "Verpine Fiber Mesh."

Verpine Fiber Mesh was, she belatedly remembered, a newer addition to the Republic tack-vest, wrist and knee guards since she'd returned from the outer-rim. It was heavier than the old Bonadan alloy, but more resistant to blaster fire. She couldn't figure out why it had taken Command so long to acquire better protection for its soldiers. Probably a shortage of credits, but that was no excuse when people were dying because their armor cracked at the first blaster shot from over thousand meters away. However, she'd seen Verpine Fiber Mesh stop a small arms blaster shot at point blank range - not bad; not bad at all.

She finished dressing quickly, putting on the helmet and turning on its targeting system next for a test run. A rectangular holo-projection immediately appeared between two small bars just in front of her shooting eye. His vision split with normal vision in the left and a blue haze with yellow targeting squares and measuring micrometers on the right. This particular unit's sensor array was only good up to two hundred meters, but since Fal knew she'd only be using it in urban operations and close quarter combat, that wasn't really a problem. The sensor array identified her surroundings and noted the strong alloys in the walls around her room and searched for movement. When it found none, the targeting computer identified as _points of tactical interest_ automatically. Falcara had programmed it to point out any moving organism with a yellow perimeter and any energy source with a dark blue perimeter. Most soldiers programmed their targeting visor with more _points of interest_, but Fal thought it was a waste of time since depending on a machine that much to shoot during battle was dangerous in her mind. And plus, she could only use it if there was time to start it up before a mission since safety precautions on such systems where mandatory – not to mention wise, since the targeting computers which didn't work would get you killed fairly quickly in a blaster fight if you were relying on them one second and unable to read anything the next.  
Satisfied with the visors programming, she shut it down, twisted the small system up so that it didn't disrupt her vision and continued to dress. When her wrist and knee guards snapped into place without a problem, she returned beside her bed to collect some personnel items – a small datapad, a good luck charm from Ithor, her time-watcher - and made her bed silently.

When she was finished, she took up the datapad and sat down. She turned it on and looked at her last log from the previous night.

_Personal log for Master Corporal Falcara Zalo, for Day 4 aboard the Endar Spire, after second night shift_

_My last night shift is over for the week! Thank the Force! I thought it would never end! Trask is up and out now too, so I have everything I want this morning. He's been worrying too much about that dream I keep having. He keeps hinting that I should see the medlab about it, but I'm not to keen to tell them that I'm having nightmares about a Death Voice whispering in my head. They might come to the wrong conclusion and the last thing I need right now is to be declared insane. Though, I think I might actually bring it up soon. These dreams are starting to keep me from my work. Not only am I always tired when I get up for my shift, but… alright, I was walking down the starboard engine section on my way back to the mess-hall and was just about to call out for the turbolift for Corporal Jenwek, my shift buddy who was at the end of the hallway with some electrical engineers at the time, and myself when I heard something behind me. When I turned around there were three Jedi standing there; two human men and a Twi'lek female. _

_Then I distinctly heard the taller of the two humans ask: "What about the ground troops, where do you want them? And how will we be able to support them?"_

_Needless to say, my jaw dropped and I said nothing. I blinked once and they were gone, replaced by Jenwek who looked at me and asked why I had called her "general" a few moments earlier when I don't even remember saying anything at all._

She paused there, unsettled by what she had just read. Maybe Trask was right, maybe she really was starting to go crazy on this ship. Either that or she had somehow contracted a disease that causes hallucinations, or there might be something in the refreshers. There could be more reasons than that perhaps-

Her thoughts were briskly cut short by a loud alarm. With the sound descended red lights from nearby bulkheads. The Master Corporal's reaction was reflex: she tossed her datapad on her bed and shot out the door.

The hallway was abuzz with activity. Soldiers were poring out of their quarters and heading for the Sergeant who was opening up a weapons locker in the wall and handing out blaster rifles and cells to all he could find. It was as Falcara got to the locker when the ship was heavily stuck. It buckled and shook and pressure valves broke under tension causing the passages to rain vapor and bulkheads to shatter sending sharp metal fragments across the vessel. Then, as Falcara struggled to put the rifle strap around her torso, the gravity accentuators failed completely throughout the whole section.

Her feet rose from under her and her running momentum just a few seconds earlier brought her spiraling into the air. She managed to grasp a damaged pipe line when she finally hit something, but by then the accentuators had re-initialized and she came falling helmet first onto the metal flooring – and everything went black.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

"Fal!" shouted someone out of the darkness.

"Zalo! Get up, girl! Time for one of your miracles!" said the voice again. The scout trooper let the blurred shape in front of her gradually transform into Trask. He was shaking her shoulder with one hand as she sat propped up against a wall. The other hand held a small blaster which he shot repetitively down the hallway beside him. He had found good cover behind a large storage locker which had been knocked to the floor by what looked like some kind of grenade explosion a short while beforehand. As the Master Corporal looked about she noticed several other Republic uniforms in the hallway taking up positions behind the corners and obstacles. Her ears were ringing, but the sound was slowly subsiding and being replaced by the high-pitched whine of blaster fire, several frag detonations and lots of yelling.

_Ah, the sounds of home again,_ she thought rolling her eyes. _Ridiculous. I always have the best luck._

She stretched her neck sideways and down, ignoring the interesting cracking sound and minor pain which came forth as she did so, and grabbed the blaster rifle attached to her by its strap.

She knelt in standby beside Trask and got his attention. "Who's the CO?" she yelled close to his ear using the acronym for Commanding Officer to find out who was giving orders to these troops.

Trask looked back at her and ducked as a blaster beam sung past his helmet. "You are!" he screamed taking a few more pot shot with his tiny blaster.

"Sith-Spit," hissed Falcara as she lined up the closest target with the sight of her blaster rifle. _Just my luck,_ she thought again.

She picked a Sith trooper taking cover behind a blown out wall. She could never tell whether or not the troopers where male or female. They're armor hid all their identity in silver and black curves and a round helm. She often wondered how the troopers could even _see_ in those helmets since their blast-shields went down so far past normal eye level. The entire suit was carefully designed to inspire dread and fear, but for the last year or so of this war Falcara couldn't care less about how terrifying the troops looked; she'd seen them too many times and had killed enough of them to know that, led by a Dark Jedi or no, they could die just as easily as any other sentient being.

And that is what happened to the Sith trooper in the centre of her sight. She pulled the trigger, he fell and she took cover remembering where she had seen other troops along the perimeter they had set up.

She shook her head as Trask threw back a grenade that had landed in between the two of them. Quickly glancing at the Republic soldiers in the hallway, she grabbed her bunkmate and brought him close to talk. "We can't hold it!" she bellowed. "They're too many, we're disorganized and dropping like nerfs in slaughter season!"

She took a few more spay shots to keep the advancing troops back and continued, "Give me that frag and get everyone back a section! And get ready to close that blast door in a hurry!"

"But if-"

"NOW, TRASK!" With that she pulled the grenade out of his tactical vest and shoved him toward the Republic's defenses.

It took a few more blaster shots to cover his retreat, but eventually Trask made to the very back reaches of the Republic line in hallway and began bringing people back.

Falcara knelt behind fallen storage locker and took a few deep breaths. _This is crazy,_ she thought as she readied the grapple attachment on her rifle and moved her hand in preparation to twist the release mechanism on the fag grenade. _Not even Bastilla would go for this one._ She tightened the straps on her tack-vest and lent against the storage locker as Trask moved the last three republic soldiers around the corner.

_This is it. It's now or never._ She twisted the count-down mechanism, shot the sticky grappler down the hallway and threw the grenade toward a fuel pipe maintenance hatch near the Sith lines.

From the moment it left her hand, time seemed to slow to a crawl for she knew she had _missed_. It was going to land too wide and an explosion and where it would land wouldn't be enough to rupture the metal pipe housing and save the people behind her.

_Move!_ she prayed at the round frag desperately. _Move now! __**Please move!**_

Impossibly, the frag spun and headed towards the housing almost completely diverting off of it original course and detonated micrometers away from the pipe housing. Liquid began flowing out for a millisecond, but soon the floor was on fire and the gas in the main-pipes would follow in step.

Falcara had no time to wonder about the frag and smacked the grapple pull button so hard she bruised her fist beneath her gloves. She was immediately dragged across the hallway hitting everything her path, narrowly missing the blaster bolts zinging past her body and holding on for dear life until the turn in the hallway where she collided with the wall to which the grapple had been attached. She rolled out of the way, left the rifle where it stuck to the wall and ran like mad towards the blast door where Trask and the other soldiers where getting ready to close and seal it.

"Close the blast door!" she ordered as she sprinted. "_**Close the blast door!**_"

Four thick, giant sized rectangular doors began closing toward the centre of the bulkhead at an alarming rate. Falcara ducked her head at the last second and dove through the opening that shut just inches behind her. She slid across the floor with a screech and covered her head just as the gas caught fire on the other side of the door.

The ship groaned and creaked as that entire section, and the Sith boarding parties within it, were obliterated. From the vast view of silent space, one could see the Endar Spire burst into flame on one of its sides for a moment, then nothing as debris projected outward with the arc of the blast.

"That wasn't exactly the miracle I was looking for, Zalo," said Trask rather harshly. He was helping a young bothan soldier to his feet when Fal took Corporal Jenwek's hand to help her rise from the floor. "You couldn't have saved us without causing thousands of credits worth of damage? The captain's going to have a fit."

Fal didn't answer right away. Instead, she winced as she stretched her neck and shoulders and took a look around. Barely seven soldiers had made it out of that section alive. She recognized all of them save for the bothan Trask was helping and he didn't look to be in too good a shape at the moment and the Sith wouldn't be held back for long even after her little fire-works demonstration.

_Escape pods_, she thought immediately as the ship rocked when another Sith Boarding Ship attached itself to the hull. They needed to find a way off the Spire. They should have come out of hyperspace near a city-like planet if she remembered the schedule she read yesterday right. _It's something that starts with a 'T'. Tarta? No – Taris. Planet where rich lived in tall spires and the poor lived below in the gutters of the city. Upper city, lower city and under-city. Right._

_Alright, Taris equals destination; map out path that leads to the destination; make sure troops will follow to destination._ She scanned the faces of her new squad. She'd say five out of the seven where battle ready - she didn't like the sickened look of the human soldier in the corner with his head down and shoulders shaking and the bothan's leg looked like something you could toss to a rancor pit monster - but it would all be for nothing if they didn't trust her or didn't follow her orders. With that in mind she looked at Trask and added to her list of thoughts: _Keep Trask from exploding or taking command because he'll get righteous and get us all killed. He's the only other person who they'll follow. We are the same rank after all._ She sighed at what she needed to do and mentally apologized to Trask. He was a good soldier, but sometimes let his passions get to him - and that was definitely not what they needed right now.

"Save it, Trask." She replied to her room-mate's earlier comments. "Unless your criticism can get us to the escape pods at light-speed, they're better off unsaid."

"Better off unsaid?" said Trask as if insulted. He pointed at the blast door. "You could have blown up the whole ship with that stunt. And then we would-"

"Wouldn't be alive," finished Falcara impersonally taking out her pistol to see if it was still intact and functioning. "I knew it wouldn't have blown up more than one section and since we were the only people left alive to fight the advanced Sith boarding parties, I took a chance. The Republic can bill me if they want, but I saw no other option."

"I hope they bill you and then arrest you," said Trask now fuming, but also, Fal noticed, putting one hand on his blaster pistol hanging in a pouch on his waist. _Feeling threatened, my friend?_ She thought absently checking the power cell and trigger on her own pistol.

Meanwhile, Trask continued to set out the criticism. "We could have held them off just a bit longer and then maybe someone would have come up with a real plan. Besides, how could you possibly know that that fuel line you smashed wasn't going to flood the whole ship? You aren't a Jedi, you can't tell the future. There-"

"The fuel pipes are full of the same Tabana gas which we ignite each time we pull the trigger on most arsenals," interrupted Fal in a voice that personified that of a teaching droid. "If we left our power cells, our ammunition for our rifles, blasters and whatever else, for more than seventy-two days without maintenance, the gas inside them would start liquidating into an other flammable state which combusts only at high temperatures – less combustible than its gassy state, of course, but still combustible. Because the gas is so unstable, the pipes that contain them on this class of battleship are four meter standard meters thick and are made with the same net like platting used to make volcanic miner-droids so it will give and stretch somewhat if there's an explosion."

She seemed to have gotten his attention with that speech and went on before he could speak again.

"There are maintenance areas within the pipes which contain transfer quarters where the gas is drained out of a sealed quarter and replaced with an oxygen and nitrogen atmosphere so that an engineer can place a service droid into it to recover the liquid state of the gas without releasing its gassy form into the air of the ship. The engineer then seals the maintenance hatch, transfers the gas back into the quarter, while being watchful of the pressure gages, and releases the hatch inside the pipe letting the droid go about its work –though it's never able to clean all the liquid from the pipes because there are literally billions of cubic meters of gas within the pipes that liquidates. Anyways, these maintenance hatches, for whatever stupidly idiotic reason, have less than a meter of metal protecting us from a gas leak there."

Fal nodded at the blast door. "That's what I aimed for back there and it ruptured just like I knew it would. The reason why the gas inside the pipes didn't destroy the whole ship is that when there is a gas leak, the computer automatically seals off the pipes of the section exposed to the most heat with five-meter thick emergency doors. It doesn't stop the explosion within that section, but it does contain it enough that it doesn't destroy the whole ship."

There was what seemed to be a long silence from everything, but the rhythmic battering of the ship bulkheads and the blaring of the alarms for what seemed like forever. Then Corporal Jenwek broke into a laugh. "You were that recruit who always knew the technical answers to everything on you military qualification course, weren't you?" She was taller than Falcara by a head, with long legs, blond hair tied back in a tail and hazel eyes set in a round face.

Fal smiled while still inspecting her pistol. "More or less," she replied. "I did get one-hundred percent on my tech and repair evaluation." She frowned in thought then added: "And my star fighter evaluation; and my med-tech evaluation; and my pyrotechnics evaluation; and my commander's evaluation; and-"

"We get the point," grunted Trask helping the bothan walk. "And I know I erred," he added before Falcara could speak. "You were right and I was wrong. Now can we get things on the way before I change my mind?"

Fal smiled and helped the sick looking human soldier to his feet. "I won't let you down Trask. I've had plenty of practice when it comes to situations like this."

She looked about as a particularly large explosion shook the ship. "We don't have a lot of time," she observed. "The escape pods a full three sections away too – eternity in a time like this. Sith-spit, I hate design flaws."

She pointed at the other human woman. "Jenwek, you're my front blaster. Echel and Vau, you two cover our backs with Trask as my second in command back there. Everyone else, keep to the middle and stay covered. Be ready to move in a hurry."

With a reassuring squeeze to the shoulder of the young man she had just helped to his feet, who nodded bravely as he brought his blaster rifle to the ready, she joined Jenwek as point woman.

"Together again, huh?" commented Jenwek as they advanced a standard line down the hallway cautiously.

"Wouldn't miss it," replied Fal keeping her eyes to the front. "How you doing?"

Jenwek shrugged, "Same as always."

Falcara laughed, "That bad, huh?"

Jenwek smiled and then her expression darkened. "Get us out of here alive, Fal."

Fal's eyes shifted slightly and narrowed upon seeing Jenwek's grim determination. It only solidified the Master Corporal's iron will to defend into galaxy class warship armor resolve.

Apparently, it showed because Jenwek wasn't bothered by the fact that Fal never replied to her best friend's statement.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

"Sith Bastards!" Screamed Fal shooting with Vau's blaster rifle in rapid fire bursts at the two remaining Sith soldiers from the ambush group of seven. One dropped to her blaster fire and the other began running.

She pulled Vau up and saw that his eyes were now wide open and motionless. He had no pulse and there was a burn in his republic armor the size of her fist. She swore and let his body fall as more Sith troops began arriving and shooting. _Wonderful, now they're coming from both sides!_ She fired more shots their way and retreated back to Jenwek and Trask – now the only two members of her small group left alive.

The Sith were now a larger number than she knew they could handle. They had spread through the ship like the Iridian Plague. Now the three of them were surrounded with no back up, no grenades and no escape route.

_Unless-_

Fal searched around desperately and, with a look of pure joy, saw the maintenance shaft just a few meters forward of their barricaded position. _This is going to be interesting._

She aimed at the shaft and fired repetitively until the grate that covered the vent flew to pieces. The grate's metal shrapnel rocketed by Trask's head who quickly took cover.

"What the _hell_ are you doing?" He screamed at Falcara with a shocked look on his face.

"Somebody has to save our skins!" replied the Master Corporal. With that, she set Vau's blaster to overload and tossed at the side with the most Sith soldiers. When it exploded, she drew her pistol and fired at the other line whilst signaling Trask and Jenwek back to the shaft.

After Jenwek slid through on her stomach, Trask waited until Fal fell back.

"Into the maintenance shaft, flyboy!" She said shoving him into the small space and firing more shots in either direction before crawling through herself. Even for her, it was a tight fit. She could only imagine Trask's discomfort as he swore and cursed the entire way through hitting his head and ligaments on every piece of pipe and grate for at least twelve meters.

When the trio emerged on the other side of the shaft, they realized too late that they had moved from one battle to another one – and they were very much on the wrong side of the control room they had entered.


	2. Chap 2: Partings to Escape

_NOTE: Holy crap. I finally managed to get back to this thing. Better a year late than never? *Roll eyes*Fixed some typos and finally found a way to show the 'time stars' with big ()()()()(). That must have been super confusing to read without them._

_I have some time this week, so maybe I can fork out some actual progress on this thing without wanting to kill everyone and everything after about a day or so. We'll see! Here's hoping!_

_OUTTA MAH WAY LIFE! I'M A-MAKING A KOTOR FanFic!_

_()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()_

Chapter 2: Partings to Escape

Fal knew they were all dead in a few seconds.

She immerged from the shaft last and saw the blaster bolt hit Trask in the chest. Now a motionless corpse, his body collapsed atop Jenwek sending her falling on her back. Fal could see the Sith soldier aim for her head only two meters away.

And then Zalo promised she would never _ever_ hold any distain for a Jedi Knight ever again.

The only warning was a clearly audible snap-hiss sound of an igniting lightsaber. Then a blade of pure energy with a bright azure centre and a thin ultramarine exterior swiftly and cleanly beheaded the soldier who was about to shoot her face off. It then proceeded to assault the fourteen other soldiers, including a few officers.

Fal was frozen in both fear and fascination as she watched the young woman work through the sizable force in her tattered, dull brown robe and a heinous looking light cloak. Her weapon sliced and crackled through air, flesh and armor as though there was no difference between any of three. She impossibly dodged more than a few bolts and both deflected and redirected many of the shots back off her blade towards those who made them. It was like watching an elegant yet most deadly display of a well-practiced dance. It took a trained Jedi two minutes to do what took a whole squadron of Republic infantry over half an hour of blaster fire.

When it was over, the reverberating hum of the beam ceased with a hiss-snap as the Jedi switched it off and attached it to her belt. She was barely flustered from the battle and began walking over to the Republic forces. It was a contained, almost military stride only there was enough grace in it to make no sound as she glided across the floor in heavy boots.

She stopped just a few feet in front of Zalo who was kneeling dumbfounded over Trask's body and Jenwek underneath him, but still staring at the Jedi. "Hello there," she said cheerfully catching the attention of a captain emerging from the lines with a motion of her hand. "It's time you gathered up your troops and headed towards the next section." Her eyes held no possibility for argument. "Commander Onasi had a few of us stay behind to bring as many survivors as we could." Her eyes darkened. "You're the last group left alive and Bastila's escape pod is away, she's on the surface," she pointed down the hallway they were defending, "and I believe you all should follow this corridor to-"

The Jedi stopped in mid sentence, spun around, shed her cloak, flipped her lightsaber into her palm and ignited it in a little under a second in order to block the incoming saber clash.

The Dark Jedi had completely ignored Falcara and Jenwek and had come in so fast that the Master Corporal couldn't have imagined how the Jedi had sensed him – even with the Force.

The fight was a blur of blue and red blades to normal eyes. Fal could only just identify which one was friend and which one was foe. The two of them leapt off walls at each other at certain points of the fight and it wasn't long until they began throwing several pieces of debris that lined the hallway with their powers. They ended up hitting other soldiers around them because both were so impossibly nimble at avoiding them. These pieces rocketed into mostly Sith soldiers since the Jedi had somehow managed to force her opponent back against his reinforcements coming around the corner. Dents from Force powers appeared quickly in the metal walls and flashes of lightning could be seen briefly throughout the fight. Away from Fal and along the passage they went, the far off explosions in the bowels of the ship were the only noise that accompanied the harmonics of their lightsabers since the troops around them were silent unless they were hit by the flying object or killed by the powers by the Dark Jedi. Neither side dared risk the disturbance of such an impressive display of battle before them and realized they would only get in the way.

Then, suddenly, the Dark Jedi was dead. His head rolled off his shoulders and fell to the floor with a dull _thunk_. What remained of his body fell to its knees and forward onto its front. The Jedi was standing over the decapitated body frozen in the follow-threw position after the deadly swing. There was the smell of burnt flesh in the air as the Jedi took a breath and turned towards the Sith troops. She stood ready in the middle of the hallway, the azure blade humming in the air between her and the enemy. The commander, clearly visible in his red Sith-armor, looked at the Dark Jedi on the floor and the Republic troops advancing to the Jedi's side.

He signaled something with his left fist and the Sith troops began firing to cover their retreat. The Jedi advanced after them, deflecting the blaster lasers back while not letting a single shot get through to the Republic soldiers behind her, and stopped as the blast doors at the end of the hallway closed.

She took another breath and the buzz of her lightsaber ceased once more.

The captain cautiously approached her. "Orders ma'm?" He inquired as the Republic troops started to move their wounded and collect themselves into movement-capable squads.

Jenwek gently rolled Trask's body off of her and lent against the wall as the CO spoke with the Jedi.

"That was damn near the most amazing thing I've ever seen," she said bluntly as Fal lent over Trask. She laughed to herself. "Outside of the bunk anyway," she added and stopped smiling when she saw Falcara's tight, almost angry, face.

The Master Corporal knelt there over Trask for a moment. His bright blue eyes were still open, but he wasn't looking at her. They were looking slightly right. She looked at where they had emerged and then at the hallway where the Sith were positioned. He must have been looking straight at the soldier who had shot him.

She sighed, refusing to cry, and pressed his eyelids shut with her fingers. She hadn't liked him. In fact, he was downright the most annoying bunkmate she had ever had since coming to the service, but he still wore the uniform and had worn it well 'till the end – even if he couldn't command to save his ass. She barely remembered where he was from – Abregado-rae? – and couldn't remember if he had family besides his parents. He would have died for her, she remembered – it was a matter of his honor; something his father had taught him.

"Fal?" Jenwek ventured, grabbing the Master Corporal's shoulder.

Zalo cracked her neck sideways. "I'm here," she said in a deep voice and got to her feet.

Someone had shoved a blaster-rifle into her hands and she reached up to pull down her helmet, and then realized she had lost the brain-bucket a while back. She shook her head, silently reprimanding herself for the loss of such a good piece of equipment. Then she looked back as Jenwek got a pistol.

"Dee?" She said, addressing Jenwek by her first name. The Corporal, who still had her helmet, regarded her with concerned green eyes through a targeting visor as she fell in beside the Master Corporal.

"Yeah, boss?"

"Don't die, alright? You're not allowed. I forbid it."

She didn't wait for the Corporal to respond and fell into one of the smaller squads – the first one in the company of about twenty or twenty-five soldiers. As they started moving she heard Dee fall in step beside her.

"No promises," said the corporal with a wink.

Fal sighed in frustration as they passed a control room. Then she blinked.

_We're only a few hallways away from escape pods._ She thought reading the bulkhead section number in surprise.

Then the next set doors opened up.

"HIT THE DECK!" Someone yelled, but Falcara was already on the floor and had brought Jenwek down with her.

A cryogenic-grenade flew over their heads and exploded behind them – covering about six Republic troops in a solidifying mass of chemicals. She heard them scream, but took aim at the nearest Sith soldier bursting through the door – after all, if she was dead, she wouldn't be able to help them. She managed to bring down two when the Jedi soared overhead and assaulted the small group of soldiers.

She thrust her hand out at them, palm open, and they were suddenly flown off their feet and back by an invisible push. The soldiers behind them were smashed by their airborne comrades and were too slow to recover as the Jedi began a killing sweep of the soldiers. She advanced all the way to the end of the hallway and signaled the captain to move forward. The Republic troops took the lead as Fal and Dee fell out of the squad and started helping the soldiers still covered in the cryo-chemicals. Only two of them were securely trapped to the floor with the blue chemical's solidifying and adhesive properties making it impossible for them to break free.

"Anyone got Stabilizing gel?" Yelled Jenwek. She was asking for a compound that would dissolve the chemical.

"No time for that!" Said the Jedi quickly ushering them out of the control room.

Fal turned and glared at the Jedi – about to give her a mouth-full for even suggesting leaving these soldiers behind – as she saw the other woman use the Force to free the troops from the grenade's effects in a few seconds.

Fal looked at the soldiers slapping them on the back as they moved, then turned to walk after them with Jenwek on her left and the Jedi on her right.

"Falcara Zalo, isn't it? Master Corporal?" Said the Jedi.

"Yeah, that's me." Jenwek tapped her on the shoulder and bobbed her head in a meaningful way. "Ma'm," added the Master Corporal almost rolling her eyes.

"I sense an enormous amount of distain for Jedi from you."

"Yeah, what gave you that idea?" Said Fal sarcastically. Jenwek elbowed her lightly. "Ma'm?" She added again.

The Jedi didn't react to the derision. "I am sorry, but you must realize that I am not accustomed to that kind of reaction from Republic soldiers. I would like to know why you distrust us so much -"

"In the middle of a battle ridden ship that's about to _explode_?" Said Falcara loosing what little patience she had contained.

Dee elbowed her harder, causing her to grunt. "_Quit it,_" hissed the Master Corporal.

Jenwek gave her a look. "She saved our lives twice in the last few minutes - "

"Yeah, and I saved our asses four times in the last hour!" Commented Zalo. "And I did it without fancy Force powers thanks very much."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Said the Jedi. "I had a - a vision." She stopped walking when they reached the next juncture. "It was before the attack while I was meditating. I didn't realize its significance." She looked at Falcara. "Not until I saw you here."

"A vision," said Fal, skeptical. "Of what, exactly?"

The Jedi gave a strange curious glance. "Of a grenade going completely off its original course and into a fuel-pipe maintenance shaft. You were the one throwing it." The Jedi looked solemn. "It has happened already." It was a statement.

Fal didn't say anything for a few moments, but she no longer looked angry - just calculating.

"What's this supposed to mean? You keeping Force-tabs on me or something?" She asked.

"Wait," said Jenwek before the Jedi could respond. "You actually did that? You can use the Force?" Her voice was exited and honestly surprised.

Fal shrugged. "I've known for years. I just don't use them, not unless I'm pressed – the powers I mean."

The Jedi raised an eyebrow and Dee's jaw fell open.

Fal rolled her eyes. "Look," she said trying to make a point. "It's not like I can't control them or anything. I have enough discipline to do so. I just don't like the way I feel when I use them." She said the last rather uncomfortably. To the Jedi she added. "And I don't like that Code of yours. 'There is no emotion, there is peace'? Are you kidding me? It's a load of bantha-shit. You can't be who you are without emotion. It just isn't done – especially if you're human. I never wanted to be a Jedi – so I never joined an academy. Don't look all surprised. I don't need any real Jedi training because I'm not a real Jedi. So don't get any ideas." She rested the backside of her rifle across her shoulder as the Jedi crossed her arms.

"Sometimes," said the Jedi staring at nothing. "Events transpire whether or we wish them to, or not." She regarded Falcara strangely. "Do not be so quick to judge, Falcara. You know not yourself."

Falcara frowned at this Jedi, then glared into her deep blue eyes. They stood there like that, the Jedi reacting with serene patience and Jenwek looking increasingly anxious when the Captain approached the three women. "Ma'm," he said addressing the Jedi. "The security feed from the next hallway looks clear, but I'd like you at the front – just in case."

She nodded to the soldier. As he returned his attention to a Sergeant reporting the state of their small force, the Jedi turned back to Falcara then sighed and gripped the other woman's shoulder. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but closed it. She gave the Master Corporal a reassuring squeeze and headed off to the blast door.

"That was strange," commented Falcara warily when the Jedi was out of earshot. Suddenly, Jenwek punched Fal in the shoulder.

"Ow!" Gasped Fal rubbing the spot. She was more than a little bit furious. "Jeeze! What was that for?"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Demanded the Corporal.

"It never came up."

"So, you slept with me, but didn't tell me you were Jedi material? Come 'on, Fal. That's pretty low."

Falcara winced, now from another pain entirely. "I'm not comfortable with it." She said more honestly. "Plus, I know how much you admire Jedi – I didn't want you to convince me to do something like asking me to become one; I think I'd regret it."

Dee shook her head with a smile. "You're hilarious. Why would I ask you to do something like that?"

Fal checked her rifle cartridge – she didn't want to look at Dee. "I don't know."

Jenwek sighed and slapped Fal playfully on the shoulder, making the other woman wince anew since she had hit her in the exact same spot. "Tell me about it later. I think this is something you need to get off your chest." She looked at the back of the line of now steadily advancing troops. "Let's take rear-guard."

As they walked, Jenwek snickered.

"What?" Asked Fal.

Dee shook her head. "Nothing. It's just that it's usually you who wants to take 'rear-guard'."

Fal looked confused. Then pinched the bridge of her nose as a blush spread across her cheeks. "Head out of the gutters, Dee." She murmured, shaking her head. "Head out of the gutters."

Dee guffawed. "But it's nice and dirty down here. I like the gutters."

"You're incorrigible."

"Of course, but would you have it any other way?"

"Most certainly not."

"That's what I thought." Jenwek winked again and the two advanced down the hallway covering the group's back.

They continued walking for a few minutes. The hallways were deathly silent. The only sound not coming from the small group of soldiers was the alarm's blaring and occasional explosion or malfunctions in the sparking computers and damaged walkways.

"This place is falling apart," commented Fal, her rifle-butt hard against the solid mesh of the armor she was wearing. She and Jenwek didn't glue their heads against the short sight of their weapons as the majority of the other soldiers did. Neither of them wanted to get tunnel vision. Instead, the two women scanned the area around them from right to left. This technique forced them to notice any and all things unusual because their eyes were unaccustomed to observing in this unnatural pattern and so their gaze passed the areas of interest more slowly and with more concentration. They pulled their rifles up in the direction of things that suspected to be threatening from time to time, but this was more about reflex drills to keep them alert and ready then anything else. "We don't have a lot of time before this place blows," Fal continued. "Once the Sith figure out Bastilla's not here anymore, they'll shoot us out of the stars."

"Do we ever have enough time?" Said Jenwek, sounding fed up. "I mean, when was the last time you and I both got a shred of luck in the battles we've been in? We're uncanny good magnets for these kinds of situations, Fal."

"What's your point?" Asked Fal, closing the blast door they had just past.

"My point is: we're both magnets, but we're both still alive. Which means the fact that this place is about to blow is a good thing. We're more likely to survive when everything's about to go nova – well, you and I anyway."

The Sergeant near them had had enough. "Cut the chatter back there." He snapped, turning around to make sure his orders were followed kept up with the rest of the group. "And pick up your feet!"

The two women looked at each other, Fal rolling her eyes and Dee grinning profusely, and then they turned to jog after the group.

When Fal turned the corner, she slowed down and stopped as Jenwek went passed her.

Something wasn't right. She could feel it like cold fingers tapping up her spine and shivered. She turned around to the broken door opposite from where the soldiers were going.

Jenwek, realizing that the Master Corporal was no longer moving, had stopped now as well and turned around. "Fal?"

She looked back at the hastily retreating soldiers and then back at Falcara, who was transfixed on the broken door. "Fal, let's go already." She ran back and took the other woman's arm with a tug.

"It's a trig –" murmured Falcara.

Jenwek made a confused face. "Come again?"

"Trigger. It's a trigger." Her green-blue eyes were suddenly wide open. "DEE RUN!"

As they did, nothing happened. So, at first, Dee was more than a little confused as they zipped around the bend in the hallway. "What the hell's going on?" She yelled as she ran after Falcara, barely keeping up.

But the Master Corporal wasn't listening. "CONTACT REAR! RUN!" She bellowed, catching up to the group of men. "RUN! DAMN YOU!"

Some soldiers hesitated, and then tried to join her as she passed them.

She was at the end of the hallway before any of them and opened the door. She turned around just in time to see the Jedi catch up – then she blinked in utter confusion and shook her head. The _Jedi_ catch up?

"Yes," said the other woman as if confirming Falcara's silent question. "You instinctively used the Force to speed your path. But that can be addressed later. What did you feel?"

"See," corrected Falcara, she felt like she was about to snap. "That door back there is being rigged to blow in a minute or so. It's got a trigger that a Sith trooper is setting. There's… something – something else too – behind it. Something big. I didn't stick around to concentrate on what it was. I think it's some kind of beast."

"Beast?" The Jedi looked concerned, but hid it behind a mask of stone fairly quickly, Falcara almost didn't catch it. After a few moments of thought, the rest of the troopers came around the corner and the Jedi nodded. "I will trust you're intuition. We will go faster." She turned and waited patiently for the soldiers to run by her.

Each and every one of them looked at Falcara with a strange sort of reverence, curiosity and surprise as they passed. Jenwek went even further by stopping beside her.

"Woaw!" She huffed. "Fal, that was crazy! I thought it was the Jedi, but I saw her look in surprise, then I knew it must have been you that zipped past us! You were like a blurr! I didn't even see you move!"

Falcara shook her head. "No time, Dee. Go."

Jenwek didn't say anything else and kept moving.

Fal was about to close the blast door when the detonator went off. There was no large explosion, but she could see the bright light by the turn in the hallway. "Disintegration charges," she murmured, closing the door shut and then shooting the consol.

She walked past the Jedi and started to jog towards the next juncture. They couldn't be more than a few more doors away from the port escape pods. She felt her spine shiver again and turned around to face the door she'd just closed.

This time, the Jedi felt it too and reflexively switched on her lightsaber as she backed away signaling Fal to stay clear as the Master Corporal held her rifle at the ready.

"What _is_ that?" It felt like the Thing was impatiently pacing back and forth behind the door.

The Jedi didn't answer for several moments, she reached out with the Force and sensed the Presence with a tentative touch.

It lashed out at her with a rage and ferocity she had encountered only once, and then she realized why Falcara had thought it had been a beast.

"Darth Bandon," the name came off her tongue with a hiss. "Only you could be so bold. But perhaps this might work to our advantage. Your Master might not be as quick to destroy this vessel if you are still aboard. You're a useful tool – hard to replace." She sounded unsure. Perhaps Malak would end the ship anyway – regardless of who was on it.

Even with the tension in the air as thick as it was, Falcara couldn't help but snicker a little.

The Jedi looked at her, brows raised in utter confusion.

Fal shrugged. "Sorry, but did you say his name was 'Darth Brandon'? Cause' that's hilarious."

"No," said the Jedi, hardly believing that Falcara could laugh at a time like this. "I said _Ban_don. _Darth_ Bandon. He is Darth Malak's apprentice and a very powerful man. I have fought him once before and barely escaped with my life."

Fal nodded, attempting to hide her smile and failing miserably – her curved lips were pursed and she snorted out a laugh or two. "Sorry. It's just... 'Brandon'."

The Jedi gave her a strange look, her lightsaber humming in the silence that followed, and then turned her attention back on the door as a deep red saber cut into the blast door.

She leaped forward and smashed the blade against her own. "Falcara Zalo! Go!" Commanded the Jedi. "You will not survive him! It will be easier for me to fight when I do not have you to protect as well! Run!"

Despite her brief laugh, Falcara knew when to follow an order that made sense. She may have been using her powers more often than she would have liked, but she was no Jedi. Darth Malak's apprentice, funny name or no, would surely tear her to ribbons if she stayed.

"I'll hold the pods as long as I can!" She began to run in the direction of the others and turned around at the last minute, then paused in sudden realization.

The Jedi was watching her flee, bright blue eyes hard and commanding. She didn't say a word; only nodded assertively. Fal felt a pang in her heart. The Jedi wasn't going to be much of match for Bandon either – and now they both knew it.

At first Fal didn't do anything, she just held the Jedi's gaze for a few seconds. Then she nodded back.

"Thanks, Jedi," she whispered. It only just occurred to her that she had never asked the other woman for her name. _Too late now_, she thought running around the corner. She didn't look back. She couldn't.

_First decent Jedi I've ever met and she's going to die for me._

It was a bitter thought, but it somehow didn't stop her from running until Fal closed and sealed the door behind her. The escape pods were only a few yards away.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Alicia jumped back and Pushed against the metal to send her body back a little further. She raised her azure lightsaber into a high guard and waited. She had clashed Bandon's saber long enough to let Falcara get some distance. At least, she _hoped_ it was long enough.

She stood still as the red lightsaber cut a new door in a sinuous circle. It was as if Bandon knew a fight was close at hand. His cuts only mirrored his tense, animal-like thirst for it – brutal and impatient.

He withdrew his saber and Pushed against the weakened metal. It cracked and bent then flew backward, hitting the wall beside Alicia, who had not moved a muscle even though the door piece had missed her by inches.

When the debris cleared, a man stepped out, flanked by two Sith troopers with black armor and disruptor rifles. He was not very tall, but his tremendous arm muscles made up for it, looking as though they were thrice the size of a normal man's. His head was shaved bald, but he had facial hair: a dark goatee with a trimmed moustache. His jaw was square, but restless – it looked like he was grinding his teeth in anticipation. He eyes shown with the same kind of battle-eagerness; they were dark and set deep in his face. As expected, he wore a black robes, but there was body armor in the design above his waist which matched that of his escort.

He licked his lips. "Alicia."

The Jedi nodded her head slightly. "Bandon."

The Sith Lord apprentice smiled; the corner of his mouth twisted into a half grin. "What happened to the other one?" He asked through the side of his mouth. "There was someone else. She ran when she felt my presence – wise girl mind you, but still, it would have been nice to see another Jedi fall to me today." His lightsaber was open in the next instant. He waved it around like a child playing with his favorite toy as his escort moved back to watch.

Alicia didn't move. "She is beyond your reach. You only have me to deal with – no one else. It is as it should be. Though you killed your Master when you left, we two have come full circle, Garris. What shall we do now?"

The Apprentice's twitched his neck slightly. "That name is dead to me, woman. I am better now: no fear – just power." He stretched out his arms wide, breathed in with a strange hiss and closed his eyes. With his lightsaber dimmed, he lifted it out of his hand and let it spin on an axis above one of his outstretched palms. "Oh, I wish you could feel like this, Alicia." He opened his eyes and stared at her, lowering his arms slowly and letting the lightsaber fall into his hand with ease. "But you can't, can you?" He waved his armed hand dismissively at her. "You never could see what the Jedi were doing to me – to _us_."

Alicia looked sad. "No one saw it more than I did, Garris."

Bandon tensed. "And _you __**did **__**nothing**_." It was a low growl more than an actual sentence and when one of the soldiers on his flank began backing away from him in fear, his dark eyes darted to the side to meet the trooper. The soldier cried out as he was lifted off his feet, but his companion froze – knowing that if he moved, he would suffer the same fate. Bandon reached out with his open palm hand and squeezed it shut quickly. There was a loud crack as the Sith trooper's spine flew back and snapped – contorting his body into a strange, unnatural U-shape and making the back of his head touch his heels. Bandon sighed. "Rookies," he said letting the trooper fall to the floor, broken, dying and paralyzed.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose near his eyes and looked back at Alicia.

She hadn't moved a muscle and there was no fear in her eyes – just pity. He looked surprised.

"No, I do not fear you," said Alicia lowering her weapon slightly. "You're nothing but a pet now, Garris." She said sympathetically. "A violent forest Borra with a short leach attached to your neck and brute power for treats. I miss the man you were – even if the Order didn't let you take the trials after so long." She paced to the left and his eyes followed her. "And they were right, Garris. I know it hurts to hear – especially from me, but by joining the Sith you have only proved their point more than before."

Bandon's neck cracked from side to side again. "You say that like it's written. You know the Jedi can not See all – else they would have seen the return of Darth Revan and my Master and the subsequent wars that have raged and threatened your precious Republic."

Alicia shook her head. "The future can never be set – it is impossible to predict the galaxy's constant shift. Master Jysikkt trained you without ever knowing what you would become. She _did_ see the darkness in your heart. She knew you needed more guidance and, therefore, kept you from the Trials." She lowered the lightsaber completely, her usually emotionless face cringing in misery. "I saw it too, but left it unchallenged." She added. "It seems that is my greatest failing – I did not care enough. Or you didn't feel the same way. Either way we've both failed each other, Garris."

Bandon's face calmed for a moment. He stood with the reverberating hum of Alicia's lightsaber accompanying the thoughts of his past. "That world is ended now, Alicia. Now is the time for a new one. One shaped in the vision of Lord Malak. You cannot imaging the Purge that will bring new life to the universe under the New Order Malak can provide." His features hardened and Alicia closed her eyes as if in pain. "The Jedi must fall, Alicia. Lord Malak wills it and I know it is necessary! This is my destiny: a herald of a New Era where the aristocratic and ancient mumblings of the Jedi Order will never again hold empty promises up only to snatch them away." He waved off his remaining nervous companion, who backed up only slightly, and ignited his lightsaber. He set his stance and pointed the tip at the woman he used to love.

He smiled, knowing the feelings he had would cause him no more harm and growled at her. "Take up your weapon, Alicia. I know you will not turn. I will not try it a second time."

Alicia's lightsaber was still alight, but she held it at her side and kept her eyes shut in a moment of meditation. "Good bye, Garris." She smiled, using the force to gently nudge the trap she had been setting while talking to him.

The detonation from the explosives in the arms locker behind her sent her, Brandon and his remaining guard flying back the way they came. Alicia's chest fell onto his lightsaber – she died instantly. Her body, however, protected Bandon from the debris and he fell to the floor with only a few scratches, which he healed instantly with the Force.

He rolled her body off him angrily and switched off his saber as he leapt and spun upright. The corridor in which they had been standing was now completely cut off with debris.

He sighed with exasperation. "_Jedi_," he said as if the word was personnel curse.

His commlink activated with a low beep and flashing yellow light. He sighed again and picked up the damned thing with his free hand.

"Darth Bandon here," he acknowledged.

"Report," replied a dark, mechanical voice at the other end.

"My progress has been slowed by the remaining Jedi I've encountered throughout the ship. They've been gathering survivors, Master."

"And Bastila?"

"Unknown, Master. Though my feelings tell me the Jedi would not go out searching for survivors with her still aboard. Must I continue the search?"

"Yes, when the escape pods have been cleared we will search the planet below. She cannot hide; we have blockaded Taris and have already begun landing troops. Be quick, my apprentice. I grow impatient." The communicator cut off.

Bandon put the commlink back on his belt, stepped over Alicia's corpse and began walking down the hallway – casually igniting his saber and beheading his remaining injured guard as he passed the man on his way out.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

When Falcara reached what was left of the militant group, they were already filling the escape pods up. She passed two guards at the entrance. She spotted Dee helping a wounded soldier into a pod, but a guard caught her by the arm and pointed at the end of the room near the already jettisoned escape-pods and towards two men – one was the captain that had been in charge and the other was someone she didn't recognize. Fal couldn't really understand the words the young soldier was saying to her, there were lots of alarms and her encounter with Darth Bandon had jolted her senses. She managed a nod and began reflexively walking. She couldn't help but think about the sacrifice that Jedi was going to give any minute now. Shame filled her mind. She couldn't help it – even though she had full knowledge that there was nothing she could have done had she stayed. Fal shook her head in disgust. No, that's not what was bothering her. She'd just left without an argument – that's what it was. There had been no argument in the matter and no discussion on whether or not she deserved to be saved. She had run. Falcara Zalo had run from a noble death – had run because she had been afraid. She winced, but suppressed it when she got close enough to the two men. The captain that had been in charge of the group was talking with a man who was wearing an orange pilot's uniform with black trousers and knee-high boots. A blaster hung from a holster at his hip and he had what looked like a few grenades and commlink attached to his belt. His dark eyes caught her as she approached them and he signaled her over. As she got closer she realized he had been injured on the shoulder and his attire had sure signs of battle; blaster burns, scuffs on his boots and the like. She resisted a sigh of relief, but couldn't help but been cheered by the sight of a man who wasn't just babysitting the pods – he had actually held them. She took note of the rank attached to one of his epaulettes and addressed him by it. "Commander," she acknowledged with a nod, her tone was harsh and rough, she realized, but considering she's just escaped death – _again_ – she figured it was good enough. That thought made her jaw clench. _I ran._ The thought ran around in circles in her head for longer than she would have liked and so she shook her head slightly to clear it a bit. _Later,_ she thought doggedly. _The deed is done. The choice is made. I'm alive; let's work with that. There's no time for regrets right now. Later._

The commander didn't notice her sudden tic. In fact, he was so tiered and beaten to a pulp that he rubbed his eyes and massaged his jaw a bit before answering. He looked like he hadn't had time to shave in the morning and scratched his untrimmed goatee nonchalantly. "I take it whatever you and the Jedi were so worried about has been dealt with?" His eyes searched the entrance, as if expecting the Jedi to follow in Fal's wake.

"Not exactly."

The commander's dark brown eyes looked confused.

"She's giving us time – the Jedi I mean. It was Darth Malak's apprentice. He's going to kill her any second." She cracked her neck sideways with a frown. "She told me to run. She's giving us time."

It took a moment for the situation to register. _That's no good_, she thought absently at both his reaction time and the state of affairs.

"Right. We better split then." The commander nodded to the captain. "Sir, I'll take four." Fal blinked and shook her head once before looking after him. When she looked back at the captain, he nodded towards the Commander in a meaningful way, and then began ordering his troops to hustle. She re-gripped her rifle and scurried after the Commander.

"Commander?" She said with uncertainty.

The man she addressed was grabbing a soldier who was about to enter the escape pod. "You – with me." Said the lieutenant.

The soldier looked distressed – actually, Fal realized, he looked terrified – and the Master Corporal grabbed her superior by the arm and shook. "Sir," she said firmly. "What are you doing?"

The commander looked at her darkly, but a wry smile lit his face all the same. "Getting four volunteers. There aren't enough pods for everyone here. They can't take the weight or the space. We have to go down one more section to get some that are operational."

Fal sighed, making a face and rolling her eyes. "Of course, we do." She grumbled unpleasantly and motioned the young frightened soldier back into his pod.

The commander was about to object, but Fal was not in the mood. She clasped her hand over the man's mouth and made a 'shooshing' motion over her lips with the one finger on her free hand.

"Dee!" She bellowed.

"Yeah, Boss!" Said a voice that was preceded by the sudden appearance of a blond head popping out of an escape pod's doors. She was grinning foolishly.

"Top keg?" She asked.

The grin disappeared, her shoulders slumped and Dee rolled her eyes, knowing the meaning behind the question.

"Gimme a sec." She disappeared back into the pod, then jumped out in a hurry – pulling a togorian out behind her.

Fal's jaw dropped as the feline-like humanoid clawed out of the pod's entrance. He was at least two and a half meters tall with a bushy main, black fur covering his entire body and a snout that protruded from his face. He was wearing civilian clothing, but no boots could cover the massive paws that were his feet. His rifle barely fit in his long, clawed hands and he looked like he was ready to kill something. "Sith 'round?" He growled.

Dee picked up a rifle. "I think we can fit three people in that pod now, by the way." She said to the captain who winced, but nodded when the togorian inclined his head politely.

To Falcara she said: "He's a VIP, so we had to get him into a pod, but neither I or the good captain's going to argue with him if he wants to tear the limbs off some Sith with us." She nodded towards the now absent captain. "Isn't that right, sir?" But the other officer was gone into a pod. Dee shrugged as if she expected this to happen somehow and turned back to Fal. She inclined her head at the togorian. "Name's Klfdrir, he's looking for his mate who happens to be, strangely enough, a member of our fine Republic Navy –"

Klfdrir cut her off with a motion of his hand and walked towards Falcara and her very pale lieutenant on the 'V' shaped, pawed legs that supported him. "My Ktryrg was reported MIA a few weeks ago. I hoped for her life, but will settle for punishing these Sith for making her leave the safety of Caross." He was close enough that Fal could see his slit, yellow eyes. "You need my help with this, Master Corporal?"

Fal found her tongue, but couldn't help but laugh. "You could say that. Are you willing? We're still planning on getting off the ship, but the Sith will not want us to." The Togorian nodded slowly with affirmation and waited for Dee to retrieve a rifle from someone in the pods before looking down at the commander expectantly.

Fal, too, looked at the commander whose color had returned and whose face had become hard. "Where to, sir? I count Klfdrir as two, if you don't disagree."

"I won't." He said quickly. Fal suddenly realized that the Sir had drawn his pistol sometime ago – probably when first seeing the togorian – and watched as the commander began walking towards the entrance to the pod-bay. "We don't have a lot of time." He said looking at the clear hallway. "Take point, I'll cover the flank. Head for section twenty-two. Twenty-four, the one closest to us, is empty and probably rubble by now anyways. Move out." He motioned for the three others to move ahead of him.

Dee frowned as soon as they got ahead. "Is it just me, or is our matted-brown-haired-Commander a _little_ bit paranoid?" She whispered jogging up the ship's hallway.

Fal shrugged. "Torogians were employed by the mandalorians during the wars. He's probably a vet and doesn't like our new friend much."

Dee, who obviously didn't know that the Togorians were once in league with the past enemies of the Republic, looked back at Klfdrir to see that he was simply staring ahead of them down the hallway as he moved briskly in rough formation with the rest of them. "But you're a vet too, Fal." Said the younger woman. "And you look fine with it."

"After the war was over, the Republic made contact with them and now their culture's a little easier to understand. Togorians are known for their honorable vows. If he said he'd help us – he'll help us. They don't like lying – especially not the males. I don't hold grudges – especially since the Mandalorians introduced their race to the Republic in a wartime scenario. All we knew about them was steeped in prejudices for a few years."

"But the mandalorians –"

"A lot of the mandalorians were human, Dee." Argued Fal. "That doesn't mean I'm going to distrust every human I meet. I believe him and he can probably hear us anyway – his ears are built for tacking prey through dense brush and thunder storms and a battle zone isn't going to impede those abilities."

Klfdrir answered to this with a clearly audible chuckled from the bottom of his throat. "It isn't. You are a very strange human – Fal was it?"

Fal looked back and shot a smile while Jenwek looked distraught. "Falcara Zalo. And I'm not strange, just informed. I like being in the loop." She pulled her attention back to the front and Klfdrir laughed again, but said nothing.

Commander Carth Onasi had been listening too, but, to his own surprise, he had not said anything either.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

"_Wow_, we're in _so_ much trouble," whispered Dee pulling her head back around the corner.

Falcara was on the other side of the half-open blast doors they were hiding behind – this created a window that perched in the wall about two feet from the ground and five feet from the sides of the hallway. She shook her head at the amount of Sith troopers in the next room: At least twenty, with two commandos. She too ducked her head back and leant her head up against the wall near where Khlf was crouching.

She looked over at the commander, who was cringing a little and scratching his beard in thought, and sighed quietly.

"It looks like their hacking the system for intel. We don't have time to wait for them to leave. The pods are about five hundred meters down the hallway to the left of this control room." She spoke at a whisper to keep from being heard by the troopers.

"I'm open to suggestions," said the commander, in an equally deflated tone.

"Access to the ventilation and throw those gas grenades we have?" Asked Dee.

Carth glared at her, while Fal just shook her head. "Would kill us all and I'm not willing to bet the systems are operative to contain the air-circulation well enough for a move like that."

"What about a electromagnetic field?" Grunted Klf.

All three soldiers stared at him.

"You can do that?" Asked Carth, very surprised.

The togorian shrugged. "It is a trick we used many a times against your Republic in the Wars. The discharge I can create with some tools and access to your computers can disable the electrical components in their blasters. We would be taking them on in close quarters – something to which I am very proficient."

Onasi winced. "Not my forte, though."

But Dee and Fal grinned at each other. "Then stick behind us, sir." Said Fal pulling out the small vibro-blade attached to her tac-vest. "Klf, Jenwek and I can dish out the pain and you can support us the rear."

Carth sighed. "I don't like it, but we don't really have a choice." He nodded to the togorian. "What do you need?"

Klfdrir grinned, the lips on his snout curling up in a strange feline gesture of anticipation. "Minutes and access to the power-transfer systems."

Carth motioned for him to follow and they quietly moved back down the hallway they came while Dee and Fal stayed where they were.

Falcara leant against the wall for a little while Dee slid down the wall and sat. Both keep their eyes on the display of Sith forces for at least a minute.

"So," whispered Dee lightly, still looking at the activity. "A short human walks into a bar on Coruscant and goes up to the prettiest twi'lek dancer and says: 'I may look like an ewok, but I'm all wookie where it counts, baby.'"

They both smiled a little, but kept silent and remained fixed on their prey on the other side of the half-closed blast door.

"Two Sith troopers walk into a bar," murmured Falcara. "The third one ducks."

Dee had to cover her mouth to stifle a laugh for that one. The joke seemed funnier given their particular situation. She risked a glance at Fal.

The other woman had cuts and scrapes over half her body-armor and clothing and there was scratch above her left eyebrow that had bled a little, then been wiped sideways – there was a disintegrating streak of dry blood that went across her forehead from where she had tried to keep it from dripping into her eyes. Her black hair was out of its tie in a few places, but she had managed to put the majority of it behind her ears.

Jenwek huffed a little chuckle. "You look like Bantha-shit, lovey." She commented in a playful tone.

Fal's cyan eyes narrowed a little and she gave Dee a short reproachful look. "This is most definitely not the time." She hissed under her breath.

"Yes, it is," replied Dee letting her head fall against the metal wall behind her without any sound. "This is the supposed to be the 'just-in-case' speech we're supposed to give each other – since the situation is right-screwed-up and all."

Fal frowned. "I don't believe in that stuff, Dee. Plus, you said yourself earlier; we're good at surviving impossibly terrible situations to which we shouldn't rightly survive." She managed a quick grin in the other woman's direction. "Besides, having a Togorian with us makes me more enthusiastic about our chances – especially in close quarters with little light."

"Little light?"

"The EMP will knock out everything electronic for a few seconds, that includes the lights. If we're lucky, only the emergency glow-plugs with work – they'll literally look like a pale glow in the background. 'Course, it'll be pitch black for at least a five seconds. We'll have to wait till we have some light to move by."

Dee was quiet for a few moments.

When she didn't reply or move Fal's eyes darted sideways to see that Dee was staring at the troops with her jaw locked – almost as if the corporal was angry. Fal sighed and slipped to the floor. Once she had her body elongated on the ground, she rolled so that she couldn't be seen below the 'window' created by the blast door's malfunction and joined Jenwek on the corporal's side of the observation position.

"Look," said Fal leaning close to Dee. "I don't mean to be cold or anything. I just don't want to say goodbye."

"I wasn't talking about saying goodbye."

Fal shifted uncomfortably.

"Exxxxxactly," grumbled Dee about the wordless motion.

There was an awkward silence then.

"I'm sorry." Said Fal.

Dee grinned and risked a quick look back at Zalo. "I'm not. You're the best girlfriend I've ever had. I don't even really care that you're so ridiculously rough 'round the edges. You know how rare that is? You're the most noble woman I know and I am very happy that I got anywhere near close to you – so just, yeah."

Before she could look sheepishly back at the Sith-troopers, Fal had grabbed her by the neck and pulled her close enough for a short, deep kiss.

When finished, she held Dee's eyes for a moment. "That's the best compliment anyone's ever given me."

The moment passed as Fal noticed some movement in time to quickly look back at the soldiers on the other side of their window. She ducked back down with Dee as one trooper passed the opening by inches. He paused for a moment, and then went back to get a situational report from the hackers.

"Bantha-shit, these guys are horrible at their job – we should have been dead." Dee chuckled a bit at that. The Sith really weren't paying attention. Most of them probably thought the ship was completely empty.

Fal watched the trooper retreat to the computers and shifted sideways and up against the far wall beside Jenwek. "No more of our shenanigans then." She said in a serious tone, but she elbow-nudged Dee in the shoulder playfully. The impact sent the other woman sideways unexpectedly though she was able to stop herself from crashing into the wall.

Dee fixed her helmet and glared at Fal. "Don't start." She warned.

"Start what?" Replied Fal, her face a canvas of innocence.

Dee continued to glare, but began watching the troopers again. She elbowed Fal back in the same manner to which she was 'attacked', smiling a little when the other woman recovered.

Fal grinned, then noticed movement down the other direction of the hallway and snapped her rifle up to aim at it.

"You two done already?" Hissed Commander Onasi as he approached them.

Fal lowered her weapon and winked while Dee looked horrified. "We're good, sir." Said the Master Corporal. "Is the plan a go?"

Carth nodded and pulled out a small blade from his jacket. "ETA: two standard minutes. Steady up."

Both women nodded and slung their rifles. Fal pulled out the vibro-bayonet on her tactical-vest and gripped it with as many deep breaths as she could.

There was a high-pitched whine and a signal burst that rung in her ears for a very uncomfortable, but not unbearable minute. As the sound resonated, the lights and several electronic systems suddenly went dead. There was some shouting and a little bit of panic as the glow plugs clicked on in the background. She turned her head and began silently moving through their group's window. As her eyes adjusted to the light, she could see that Jenwek had flanked to her right towards one of the commanders and the Sith were taking up poorly clumped together groups of soldiers who had only barely managed to arm themselves with rifles. A sergeant was ordering the troops to tear off their now useless helmets as she approached him and his three other troops. She maneuvered herself in the poor light behind the small team and struck swiftly. Her vibro-blade sunk deep between the plates in the soldier's armour. At the same time, Fal threw her hand around and clasped the palm of her glove over and slightly into the mouth of the woman she had just pierced and felt her quarry's teeth sink in as she did so. She winced, but made no sound and pushed the blade harder. She'd hit the Latimus Dorsi muscle and punctured the human's right lung and a few ventricles to the heart. She'd be dead in seconds so Fal waited even as the teeth pinched skin beneath her glove. She felt the life fade from the woman and she quietly let her drop into the long grass – long grass?

Fal blinked – hard. And then shook her head, but the terrain had not changed and it was a dark rainy night in the middle of a long grass field on a planet she didn't know.

"Sith-spit, not again… Not now!" She breathed hopelessly into the rain as thunder and lightning storms roared in the distance.

_This feels so real._ She thought wiping the rain from her eyes. She looked back at the trail she had made through the grass. There were soldiers back there, she couldn't see the army they belonged to, but suddenly her arm moved up of it's own accord and she pressed the open comms button on wrist-computer she didn't remember owning. "Teams eight through fourteen, this is codename Tenel Mir. Sentries are out of the equation. Move in and take the compound, over." She said in a voice that was hers, but not hers. Her head turned and Mandalorian War-styled republic soldiers jumped out of grass around her advancing. The compound looked like it had been worked into the mountain and it was small, but it was a good start.

Flashes of light and then darkness.

Thunder rolled.

_You know not yourself_.

There was a roar in Fal's ears at first and the then the haze of the true world as it came back into her field of vision. For a moment, there was another Spire in her mind and it was not the fleeting ship she was on now. Was she even on a ship right now? She couldn't tell. Couldn't comprehend the notion…

Where was she?

"FAL!" Jenwek screamed at the top of her lungs.

Fal blinked and the world returned into dim red light. The glow plugs of the Endar's Spire showed the last of eight Sith Troopers run towards her with the butt end of his rifle hoisted above his head in desperation. He screamed at her as he advanced.

She dodged the butt-strike and lunged forward, striking the blade in a forward thrust straight through his armour and into his heart. He fell limp and she shoved him off her, letting him fall to the floor and freed her weapon from his armour.

There was another roar from the corner and a cry, followed by the sound of limb and throat being torn. Klf immerged from the darkness, his eyes shinning bright grey against the red background. He wiped his snout with his forearm and smiled at her – his crocked incisors shinning. She smiled back wryly and felt something sticky on her cheek as she did so.

That…that was a lot of blood. It wasn't simply on her face either. Fal looked down despite her stomach warning her otherwise, and found that the entire right side of her body was drenched. She gagged a little and felt some bile make its way to her throat, but Fal forced in back down.

Commander Onasi was running over to Jenwek as Fal recovered from realizing she had butchered an entire squad while hallucinating visions of a long ago battle. She looked down at they're strewn bodies on the floor – and gasped when she saw a corpse she'd pinned against the wall with a Sith vibro-blade. When she shook her head violently and turned to see Dee she froze again.

She realized what Carth was doing, drove past Klf and slid to her knees pushing the Sith soldier off of Dee faster than the commander could.

"DEE!" She said without knowing what to say.

There was a lot of blood – more blood than was on Fal at the moment. Jenwek had taken on the commander of the squad. He had pulled his own vibro-blade and attacked her, but she had been fast enough to defend herself and eventually kill him. Her blade was still sticking out of his plates at the neck while his blade was still in his hand; bloody and sticky in his grasp as his dead body lent against the wall. The trooper they had rolled off her was one of the casualties of Fal's slaughter.

There were tears in Fal's eyes. Half of Jenwek's abdominal armour had been torn off and there were bits of her intestines sticking out of her clothing near her stomach. Her neck – there was a gash there to a depth that allowed enough blood to fill a small bucket to poor out. Dee was chocking as Carth held it tightly with one hand and using the other to pull bandages and small Bacta vials from the pouches along his vest.

Dee was trying to speak, but Fal desperately tried to silence her with a hushing sound and meaningless comfort. The Master Corporal looked at Carth, who gave just the tiniest shake of his head.

Looking back down at the broken woman before her, Fal saw the tears of acceptance welling up in Jenwek's eyes and her jaw set.

"No." The word was harsh in her throat and felt more like a bark. "No one else dies for me today."

Her hand was one Jenwek's neck, but she couldn't feel it. The Bacta seemed to aid her and she felt like she could touch it; manipulate it to work so that Dee's muscle, tendons, veins and skin would knit faster.

By the time she got to the lower torso, Dee had only a fresh scar on her neck and Fal was starting to burn. Her eyes felt ablaze, even when she closed them. Her hand seemed on fire too, but she ignored it. The Force became her eyes and hand now, though she could barely realize it through the pain in her veins, heart and mind.

It beckoned her to let go when the task was nearly complete and she couldn't resist. It might have killed her had tried – she didn't know if It would truly do so, but the feeling that It could and would was so close she could taste the flames on her tongue and she dare not mend the wound completely.

Her mind blanked for a few moments when Fal finally disengaged herself from the burning. She rocketed to her feet, swaying. Her vision blurred in and out of semi-consciousness and she even tipped backward into Klf's steadying bulk behind her.

Someone was talking. Why must they always talk when she wasn't really here?

"You're gonna have to say that again a few times before I can answer – where in a Ronto's ass is that ringing coming from?" She complained, vision still spinning. Was Klf holding her up?

She vaguely felt like she had been lifted off the ground and it was several minutes before she pieced together that Klf was carrying her.

When they stopped a full junction later, so had the ringing.

"I think you can put be down now, big guy. I promise not to pass out." She grunted from atop his shoulder.

He wasn't precisely gentle when he put her on her feet, but she only winced for a moment before grinning like an idiot at Jenwek.

"I hope I didn't put your intestines back in wrong or anything." She stated, almost laughing. She was spent, her breath raspy and legs barely keeping her upright, but she felt more alive than she ever had in her life and she couldn't stop smiling.

Dee grinned at her as Carth rolled his eyes at them both. He had been Jenwek's crutch for through the corridors, holding the Corporal up by wedging himself under her armpit and holding her up.

"You should probably tell me something as important as being Force sensitive the next time we have to escape an exploding place." Said the Commander, relieved despite his annoyance instead of shaken with the reveal of Fal abilities.

Jenwek's torso was still fragile. There might have been some broken bones and minor internal bleeding that Falcara hadn't been able to mend, but she grinned back. "Thanks for not letting me die." She said meekly. She groaned as Carth readjusted himself under her. "Where are those damn pods, already?"

"We had to take an alternate route to get to them, but they're just around this hallway here." Said the commander. "Let's move before somebody finds that mess we made back there."

Fal began moving quickly again, but realized that she was going to cramp up soon if they didn't get there in about –

She froze in the hallway suddenly and turned about. "Bantha-shit!"

"What? What is it?" Demanded Carth almost tripping to turn about.

"He's right behind us!" She cried, feeling a wave of aggression flicker through the Force. "I'll try and close these blast doors up ahead while keep running for the pods!"

"Human," grunted Klf to Fal as she limped to the door. "That will not stop him."

"How would you know that?" She fell to her knees and opened the door controls panel. "Nevermind, I don't want to know." By the Force! Her brain was mush right now! Short of blasting the controls with her non-existent weapon, there was no way she'd get this closed in time. "It doesn't matter," she grunted resolutely. "It doesn't need to stop him. We just need a minute or so."

"Human," Klf said again moving to the pod side of the door and looking for other options. "This will not give us a minute either."

Jenwek shoved herself between Fal and the controls and began pulling at certain wires while pressing against the circuits everywhere else. "Move it! I can program it. Get up, Fal! Go!" She pulled one wire all the way out after a few moments, then pulled Fal who was struggling to get up off her knees close. She reached up to the other soldier's neck and pulled for one kiss. "Goodbye." She said shoving Fal back with the strength she'd been saving since she'd knelt down.

Falcara toppled uncomfortably back and hit her head on the metal floor with a loud SmAck! The blast door shut too quickly for her to recover.

"DEMARA!" She screamed, getting shakily to her feet. She wasn't even aware that her head was bleeding from the fall. "DEMARA! OPEN THE DOOR!"

One fist hitting the closed door. Both. "DEMARA!"

The first hit made her fists bleed, though she couldn't see them through the tears; the second hit bent the door's metal a little – what little of the Force connection she still had she summoned into her fury against this one barrier.

"DEE! DON'T DO THIS!" Incoherent rage had filled her up by the time she felt Darth Bandon presence on the other side of the door. She screamed again as her fists hit metal.

Klf had hit her on the side of the head before she knew that he had made any motion to do so. His second strike hit her moments afterward. The world went black and silent immediately.


	3. Chap 3: A Fetch Quest By Any Other Name

A.N. #1

_So, Dee has heroically saved us from having anymore story done on the Endar's Spire. Unfortunately, now Fal has to deal with Dee's death and with Klf being the cool, but other-worldly beast-man he is and of course Carth is being a jerk because he doesn't trust anybody and he has PTSD. Poor Fal. Just pull a River Tam and crush them with your brain! … _

_No? Oh, fine then… Crush them with character development!_

_Where's my Ebon Hawk?!... _

_Oh, right. Two more Chapters on Taris at least before I get to see her again. __ Curses and damnation and Andraste's flaming tits…_

_Good news! I actually have a plan for this story now! HOORAY!_

_Step 1: Write._

_Step 2: Publish online_

_Step 3: Delete, copy-paste, correct typos, republish_

…

_Stop looking at me like that and just read!_

_P.S. *Asterisk: A star-shaped symbol used in printing. In this case, used to indicate footnotes at the end of the chapter to describe terms that would otherwise confuse the living hell out of everyone. (Yup, I pulled one of THOSE…, but the good news is, I only have to do it once with SW swear words and then I can use them all the time!)_

_()()()()()()()()()()()_

Chapter 3: A Fetch Quest by Any Other Name

_Parry, parry. _

_Block high, attack, block side, attack. Press forward! Barrage of attacks! _

_Feel the Force hit her and watch her take hold it in her hand and send it back along the same line of power._

_Attack. Attack! _

_She summons the Force and erodes his will to fight while simultaneously giving her greater focus and strength. _

_Interesting ability… the famed Battle Meditation, perhaps? Is this the Jedi who gives the Republic hope?_

_Kill strike. The Dark Jedi falls at her feet. She pushes the body away with the Force and steps forward, blade raised, bright eyes focused. _

_Confident. Her fear is hidden well. Her steely gaze reinforces her belief in her strength._

_She is brash. _

_She is young._

_She is fiery._

_She is a mirror for what has passed what seems like ages ago, but she does not know it. _

_A slow laugh… It echoes in the darkness though its smile is hidden behind a mask._

"_Bastilla Shan." A sigh, almost a whisper flows. "You know not yourself, nor what you have set in motion..."_

"_I doubt that. We have you now." She sets herself in a confident position, her lightsaber held high as two Jedi converge to face the dark, twisted shape on the bridge of a starship. _

"_You cannot win." She advances forward with her followers. "Revan." The name is a curse she spews forth from the underbelly of the darkness that consumes her even now…_

"_I already have." A grin beneath a mask… _

_**I can't see! WHY CAN'T I SEE!**_

_Demara makes an ear-piercing shriek, but she is too far away... _

_Everything is too far away to matter._

"_You know not yourself..."_

_Scream, Falcara, scream._

_No one can hear you._

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Fal woke with a start that took all the air out of her lungs. It took her a few moments to realize that it was because she was screaming her head off. She stopped when she grasped the concept of where she was – a bed, in well-lit room with an aroma that reminded of somewhere giant rodents would roost. She took a deep, shaky breath, then pulled her knees to her nose, wrapping herself into a ball.

"Dee." A sigh, almost a whisper flows, and so do the tears.

Why did everyone want to die for her all of a sudden? No more! First, the nameless Jedi, and now Dee. She was no less important in the galaxy than anyone else. No more…

_Dee, you schutta* – why did you have to go out like that? Now, I'm going to be going over that scene in my head thinking I could have saved you for the rest of my life…_

In reality, that last thought was only half-true. Whenever she would think of Dee in the future, near or far, the first thing she was going to think about was a comforting arm wrapping around her bare waist after waking from a nightmare. Or maybe she'd think of the sound of a rougher voice whispering something crude in her ear, making her laugh in turn. She'd think of the kiss far before thinking of the goodbye.

"At least you got to say goodbye." She coughed out bitterly through her tears.

Her sobbing gave her some solace and when her eyes became dry enough to allude some sense of dignity, Fal unhinged her arms from around her knees and sat cross-legged on the bed to recover her shaking breath.

"I sought to pray for the other female last eve. Her name was Demara, yes?"

Fal's eyes snapped to a razor sharp focus towards the sound of that voice. How had she _not_ noticed the giant beast-man in the corner at the workbench?

"Do not weep for the fallen who have saved us." He continued, staring at her from where he sat, his towering mass of a furry body clean, but not without rough spots and his gaze solemn. "They would not want it. Nor would your Demara. She made her decision to sacrifice herself. It was her choice. You could have done nothing. I believe she felt you may have given her borrowed time and chose a better end then she was originally given. She died knowing some of what she fought for survived: I would have done the same for my brothers or my lovely Ktryrg. An honourable death; a Hunter's death. I envy your Demara for the verve she has earned in the afterlife." He paused, his ears flickering against his head in discomfort and made a face that Fal thought originally was a snarl, but came out as a very odd looking feline wince. "I am also sorry that I struck you, Falcara Zalo." He confessed, almost in pain. "But, you would have simply died with her. I could not allow it. Please accept my apology."

She felt like growling at him, but abstained from doing so because his words and, more importantly, his apology seemed completely sincere while he had also collected food in a tray for her. He approached her cautiously when she did not respond and set the food down on the small table beside the bed and bowed to her, his furry face and snout revealing nothing but respect for her. He turned round and walked back to the chair he had occupied and waited patiently.

Fal took a few deep breaths before speaking to keep her frustration, hurt and temper from seeping into her voice. "Thank you for the thoughts and your regret, but the next time you make any self-projecting assumptions to how someone actually feels about something, keep this in mind: Demara would never have thought she was on 'borrowed time' as you put it." She said bluntly. "I know togorians don't get off world very often, but not everyone thinks the way you do – I knew her two years and she would have been planning to live. She made a split-second decision that cost her her life and saved our asses. That's all. Simple and straightforward. I agree that it took guts, but I still hate that she did it – still think she shouldn't have done it. There might have been an other way." She was bantha-shiting herself at this point, but didn't care. Klf was not allowed to judge Dee on anything. He hadn't known her – Fal had.

Klf raised a strange furry eyebrow at her. "Nothing else could have been done in as quickly a time as was required to save us, Falcara." It seemed he knew the bantha-shit as well as she did. "But I apologize a second time for colouring your Demara's personality with my beliefs. That was unwise. My culture is… different compared to humans it seems."

Fal sighed, unable to take the amount of contrition going on in the conversation, and advocate defeat. "Other humans might think the same way you do. We're diverse in our ideals – one of our greatest strengths and many flaws, if you ask me. I get that you're trying to comfort me and apologize a hundred times though, Klfdrir, and I accept both, alright? Just stop acting so meek – you'll make me cry some more."

Klf tilted his head almost completely sideways and his furry brow knit together in confusion.

Fal rolled her eyes at him. "That last was joke," she said, rubbing her dry eyes and swinging her legs over the edge of the bed to face him fully. "I was trying to lighten the mood."

The togorian straightened up and nodded, pleased that his efforts had not been in vain. "I am grateful that you are no longer offended… Though you are a strange kind of creature to openly make jokes in the wake of death. Though I will admit that I have not had much contact with your species' females and I was more worried that your sexe would be more fearsome than even my kind's females. Therefore, I found it wise to seek reprieve immediately."

Despite Fal's mood, she had to laugh at the sheer amount of relief in his voice. "Klfdrir, you're about two meters tall, weigh almost three times my weight and probably five times as strong and have claws and teeth that could tear me apart in seconds." She shook her head when the togorian simply blinked at her and she sighed. "I fail to see how I can be in any way fearsome to you."

Klf looked taken aback. "But you are female." He said as if that explained everything.

Fal smiled at that. "That I am. But I doubt I'm very similar to your females back home." She cringed and quickly added: "At least while sober, anyway."

Klf, after some moments of scrutiny of Fal's tone of voice, grinned. "I shall endeavour to keep you away from any alcohol use, then."

Fal's eyes narrowed in thankless, unabashed aggression. "That would be unwise and I hope you're joking." She grunted at him.

Klfdrir shrunk only a little, but stood his ground. "I will only keep you from it if it will harm the reaching of any goals… and if it harms you." He said in all seriousness. "I am surprised you would not wish me to keep you from drowning yourself in such things."

Fal made a sound of contempt. "I'd never go that far." She insisted. "I just like my drink. Especially since I'm pretty good with hacking the droids serving it to stop charging me after drink number two."

Klfdrir frowned at her again, but his tone what less condescending and more scientifically observant. "Human females are odd creatures." He said with a sigh.

"What's so different between human females and your own that you've been able to spot so far?" Asked Fal, curious. She knew Togorian uses on the field of battle as far as physical strength and endurance were involved, but she knew only a few things about their culture. This rift between males and females was something she had heard about, but she never knew how it existed in the first place.

"I am unsure." Replied the Togorian honestly. "I would require more information. Do you excel in technological achievement more than your males?" Inquired Klf.

"Well, yes. I'm pretty good with tech, but I know some guys who could hack and build twice as well as I can, too." That took the Togorian back a notch and Fal was more confused than ever. "Is that… Is knowing about tech not common for both sexes on Togoria?"

Klf shook his head. "Males do not partake in technological marvels unless it is to impress a female for a time and even if he is successful, he does not bring such advances back to the male tribes. We are nomads on our own world, driven by the hunt for the hunt and life in all its glory. Our females live separately from the male tribes – it was they who built the first city, that of Caross, and the smaller settlements with all their luxuries."

"By luxuries I assume you mean technology more advanced than club, spear, tent and fire. Did you learn how to use tech because to impress your Ktryrg?" Fal smirked at that. She could see Klf working his tail off to get the girl – it suited what she knew of his personality so far and was absolutely adorable.

But to her surprise, the togorian looked taken aback by her question and was nervously silent. "No. I am not proficient in technology." He said after some deliberation.

Fal frowned and nodded meaningfully to where he was sitting. "You seem pretty comfy with that workbench from the hydrospanner to the macro-welder. Not to mention you were able to rig an EMP out of a broken ship's common terminal." She winced, watching his growingly apprehensive body-language closely. "Annnd now I've made you uncomfortable." She said simply and to the point. "We can stop if you want."

Klf snatched the back of his neck vigorously for a moment, never breaking eye-contact with Fal, and then shrugged. "It… it is frowned upon on Togoria for a male to have as much interest as I do in such things. We are nomads. We should live for the hunt. Not to be still and stay within the walls of camps that do not move."

"But your females like their life, no? And they have to hunt as well from time to time or they'd starve. Unless they make you hunt for them too."

Klf frowned again. "They do hunt from time to time, but they prefer a life of luxury to the life within and about the jungles, or mountains, or hill country." He explained. "I… excelled at the hunt and life within the male-tribes is as good as one could hope – we are a simple people within tight-nit groups and families – but I felt a sense of longing for the workings of the galaxy ever since I first set foot into Caross."

Fal smiled at the confession, her eyes shining with a kind gaze. "You wanted more from life and you found interest and passion in tech."

Klf nodded. "A skill that served me well in the Mandalorian Wars and kept me alive more times than I can count. It also attracted Ktryrg when she found out."

"Found out?" Asked Fal.

Klf snorted – or was it a growl? – though Fal supposed this must have been a type of togorian laugh. "Correct, though she was more confused as to why I was dressed in female ceremonial garb at the time."

Fal's jaw dropped a little and her smile widened. "Alright, I'll bite. Why were you dressed in female garb?"

Klf physically jumped when she said that and he shied away from her.

Fal, releasing what she'd said, quickly put up her open hands and signaled for calm. "Poor choice of words on my part! I don't mean to actually 'bite', Klfdrir. It's a form of human expression. It means I'm really interested in what you have to say."

Klf's ears twitched and he nodded, not completely comfortable, but less bashful and visibly relieved. "Ah, I see, Falcara Zalo. You humans have many expressions that I do not understand. Perhaps you will clarify some of them later."

Fal nodded, grinning. "Not a problem. I'll describe whichever ones comes up for you when they come up and them some." She winced and Klf immediately looked apprehensive.

"If such a request is too troublesome for you, Falcara, I –"

"No! No, really it's fine. I just, ah –" Fal laughed a little. "I just realized that what I said was probably considered some kind of mating advance on Togoria if I remember my knowledge of your species right?" But she said unsure. There were significant gaps in her knowledge of these giant man-cats. Most of what she had collected with word-of-mouth from other vets and a few information packets she'd read about togorians as the Republic's old enemy.

Presently, Klf nodded, baring his teeth in what could have been a mocking grin if it didn't look so terrifying. "Correct. I am, however, mated. You would not be accommodated."

Fal sighed, closed her eyes and shook her head at the ridiculous suggestion, but a smile never left her mouth. "Sorry to say that I didn't mean it that way." She said looking back at the togorian. "You're not my type."

Klf nodded. "Nor should I be. I am mated." He said again firmly.

"Lucky woman." Admitted the Master Corporal lightly. "How'd she fall for a cross-dresser tech-togorian in the first place?"

Klfdrir snort-laughed again. "I was attempting to buy parts from the sales-droid at her aunt's shop when she emerged through the back of the store." He explained happy to recount his tale. "It is… socially unacceptable for a male to shop for items such at those without a female to accompany him."

Fal raised her eyebrows with a smile. "So you cross-dressed to get good tech equipment." She shook her head. "Togorians are weird."

Klfdrir only lent back in his chair more comfortably. "As are humans to us. Ktryrg had only brief contacts with your people, Falcara Zalo, but her opinion was the same as most togorians before she left the homeworld: you are too small for the way you act and you are less susceptible to honour than most." He titled his head as Fal looked a little insulted. "I see evidence to the contrary every time I meet a group of humans. I have come to the conclusion that you are more diverse than we can conceive."

Falcara laughed a little. "I guess I'll take that as a complement, though I'm guessing your species wouldn't like that diversity very much in general."

Klf nodded lightly. "Only a few would say otherwise. The last messages I received from her admitted she had stopped enduring your kind and befriended some. Though, to be fair, she has always been different in terms of togorian socio-bias."

"How so?" Asked Fal, curious.

He hesitated before saying: "She was apparently not permitted to wander in the jungle outside without supervision, but she would do so regardless of risk. That is how I first met her; she had snuck back into the droid-shop via the back door and surprised me enough that some of my garments fell from my chest and… well, she realized I was male and did not pass judgment. She was instead very curious about me."

"Why such staunch rules for her? I mean, is your homeworld that dangerous?"

Klf shook his head. "It is no more dangerous than any other worlds without the luxuries, but Ktryrg's case was different. It was because she is second in line in relation to the mate of the Margrave and to risk her life would be to risk her position that of her younger cousins in the tribes. Though he restrictions did lessen with time. Particularity after the Mandalorian Wars came to an end." He explained.

Fal blinked, shocked. She might not have remembered mating advances quickly, but she knew what the word 'Margrave' meant. "So what you're saying is you essentially 'mated' into togorian royalty?" She asked, practically laughing.

Klf shrugged. "Some might say as much, but I do not agree. True that the Margrave's line of succession is hereditary, but the chance of the current Margrave's mate and the Margrave-sister not birthing any kitts and those two females suddenly dying is extremely low. The Margrave also has three brothers that could take his mantle with their own mates if he proves unworthy or dies. Otherwise, my Ktryrg would have never been allowed to leave for your Galactic Navy in the first place."

"Wait, where's Krtryrg's mother in this line of succession you just mentioned?" Fal asked confused.

Klfdrir frowned and looked to the walls as if through them.

Fal winced. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean –"

"My Ktryrg's queen** was not in her right mind since her mate was killed by a liphon. She then wandered out into a nest not long after his death."

"I'm sorry, but a what? A liphon? What kind of creature is that?"

Klf's gaze turned grave. "They are a species of enormous flying reptiles native to my world. In the Beginnings, they feasted on our flesh, but as we grew and began to think clearly, they became less of a threat to us. They still can consume us easily, but we are more apt at killing them now. Seeking them out is never a wise decision alone, however…"

_Nice, Fal. You've put your foot in your mouth again._ She could almost feel Jenwek elbowing and chastising her from the afterlife.

"Klfdrir, I'm sorry." Said Fal honestly. "I didn't mean to bring up… I…" She struggled to find the right words. "I didn't think she could have wandered into a nest on purpose. She essentially committed suicide out of grief, didn't she?" When Klf nodded gravely, Fal shut her mouth completely and couldn't look at him.

But the Togorian was only quiet for a moment or so. "You meant no harm in your curiosity, Falcara Zalo. There is nothing to forgive. But you see now why the elders placed restrictions on my Ktryrg – they feared a madness might have been present…"

"They always treated your mate differently out of caution of her reaction to her mother's death." Concluded Fal, risking a glance solemnly. "What was she doing out in the jungle? Just being spiteful towards her elders for the restrictions?"

Klfdrir's response was dead-pan: "No, she had been hunting liphons alone."

Fal whistled and shook her head in admiration. "I like her already. Probably would have done the same damn thing. At least for a while."

But Klfdrir disagreed and actually managed a predatory growl within his voice. "It was not healthy, Falcara Zalo! She had been chasing the creatures because she had been chasing a ghost of a mother she never truly knew!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Said Fal quickly raising her hands again in defense. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way. It just… " She took a deep breath. "I've been there. I've been in that frustrated state when you think everyone's holding you back. I nearly got killed a few times as a young soldier because of it." She grinned at the folly of her memory.

Klfdrir snorted and began pacing out of his chair. "I do not understand this female willingness to throw yourselves into suicidal situations in hopes that it betters you."

"That's because we don't think its suicide." Replied Falcara simply. "At least, I didn't until I _did _almost die. Fortunately, I had someone with me who convinced me of my folly." She frowned, thinking more into his words. "Wait, you said 'yourselves'. You were counting more than me, weren't you? You think Ktryrg joined this war is some kind of suicide mission."

Klf snarled at her without actually making a noise, his snout contorted into something ugly, and then gradually changed into a face of surprise with his ears returning to their normal position instead of pressed firmly against his head. He sighed uncomfortably when Fal refused to drop her steely gaze from him. "You are… remarkably perceptive, Falcara Zalo. In fact, I wonder if the Force has anything to do with the astonishing efficiency of such talents." He rubbed his eyes and snout with a claw-hand and heavy-heart. "Do not take such an opinion as an insult to the Republic you serve. I only wish to convey that my Ktryrg did not join your Navy with the intention of serving it faithfully."

"How can you be sure of that, exactly?" Asked Fal curtly crossing her arms. He'd coloured Demara with his own culture's personality, perhaps he was colouring his mate with something she hadn't actually felt.

"Because Ktryrg told me as such herself before she left." Replied Klfdrir evenly. "She was not interested in the Republic's welfare, only in the challenge the Sith posed." He glared at Fal. "You say that a friend made you realize what you were doing. Is it so impossible to think that Ktryrg has not met her 'friend' yet?" He sighed again, even as Fal lowered her arms and winced in dismay. "She was always trying to carve her way into a worthy life – she was the lone survivor of litter who never got to know the touch or love of a queen. The droids she made gave her solace and her aunt raised her as well as she was able, but she always felt that the life she had was not enough. Even when we first met I could see it." There was a nostalgic smile on his face then. "I came to love her for that yearning, even though I felt as if she would never find what she was looking for in the manner in which she looked for it." He scratched the side of his neck with a growl and moved his chair so that he faced the workbench. "I do not expect you to understand my feelings for her," he said bluntly, "but understand this: my Ktryrg left with the notion that would find peace in the war, that she would find honour in murdering Sith, and that I found both of these to be a step back on her path to find herself." He picked up the macro-welder, prepping it for use for whatever was on the table in front of him. "Though… I do not love her less for any of it – I was even offered to be removed as a mated male from both of our tribes when they revealed to me that she had gone missing… I refused." He paused for a moment and looked back at Falcara. "Am I wrong for doing so? Both loving her and seeking her out?" He said almost pathetically.

Fal froze then, unable for speak. She sat there with her mouth open as Klfdrir waited. When no answer came from her, he picked up the welding visor and adjusted it to his face before starting to repair or fashion something on the workbench.

There was an uncomfortable silence that followed as Fal took in what she had heard. If she were completely honest, she hadn't expected it to go this far into Klf's personal love life, nor had she expected some of her more rough memories to surface within the discussion as well. What had started out as a coping device following her trauma of losing Dee had turned into an argument about the rhyme and reason for loving someone.

What in the name of the Force was she supposed to say to that? She had loved Dee, that she was certain of, especially now that she no longer had the woman in her arms or within reach, but she was unsure if it was to the extent or even in the same _galaxy_ of love that Klf had just expressed about his mate. Thus, she was hard pressed to provide the togorian with any kind of answer on the first half of his final question.

Was Klf wrong in assuming his mate had learned nothing by seeing succor in fury? That was a real kicker. Her instinct made her want to say no, but her experiences in life begged to differ. Rage had its uses, but it had the tendency to reduce you to a creature that had no will of it's own if you let. Calculated releases of such emotion could, however, save your life if used properly, but it sounded like Ktryrg was becoming more and more unstable. But, searching for a purpose within the heat of battle… _that_ she could understand as clear as a lightsaber in the dead of night. Simplicity in violence had never been a heavily burdened thing for her. Conflict and war had been her _home_, but when it wasn't right in front of her, she had always had trouble seeing it as shelter since a young Corporal named Merrick had shown her how easily it could destroy the lives of so many she cared about…

She recoiled from that memory and sighed at the headache that appeared when she remembered how the family she had saved on the planet of Abridon had died. That had seemed ages passed now; a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away it seemed. She'd doomed them when the Mandalorians invaded and sought revenge for what she'd done to their comrades. Such wasted life in the wake of her rage…

She sighed and looked up from her headache to where the silent Klf was working.

It took a minute or so for her to gather the courage to approach him and place an uneasy hand on his shoulder. He'd heard her approach, of course, but hadn't stopped his work until she had actually touched the shoulder.

"I don't know the answer to either part of your question, Klf." She said to him calmly. "What I can say if that I'll give you hand if you want to find out." She cringed and rolled her eyes at her use of human metaphors again and added: "That expression means - "

"I know what it means." Grunted the togorian, not bothering to take off his visor, but turning his head slightly towards her. His ground his teeth for a few seconds in thought, then sighed and nodded slowly. "I would welcome the aid. Thank you."

He returned to his work without saying another word as Fal smiled and returned to her bed. She looked down at the sizable fruit and small paste-like meat on the bed and smiled. "Thanks for the grub too." She muttered and began eating with a smile.

The high-pitch cracking of the macro-welder was the only sound in the room for several hours and Fal fell asleep to it after eating with little difficulty.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

_The blur to the world fell upon her vision like a plague. An echo of the Force within the mind. _

_Crawl forward. Know the pain, but find strength in it._

_Wake! Or die here! Open your eyes!_

_OPEN YOUR EYES!_

"FALCARA ZALO!" Klf was shaking her and yelling so loudly, she half expected to be def in one or both ears when she opened her eyes.

She grimaced when she pulled herself up in the dark room. It came alight as Klf pressed a button near the door to give power to the light fixtures.

Fal started taking breaths and straightened up in her bunk. "What happened?" she asked, nursing her headache by placing her temples in her hands.

"You began screaming in pain and I do not recall what you were saying before you were screaming, but it sounded as if you were having a conversation with… yourself." Klf sounded awkward, as if he did not know how to describe what he had heard and walked over to her.

"Sith-spit." She hissed under her breath. By the Force her head felt like that Gamorrean brute on Coruscant had hit her all over again!

"What do you remember of the dream?" Asked Klf kneeling so that he was face to face with her.

Fal shook her head. "It was just a dream," she said dismissively. "I have nightmares a lot since I got on board the _Endar Spire_. I just…" she licked her dry lips and took a deep breath to regain composure. "I just need to deal with it. It must just be some PTSD or some dumb Bantha-shit like that… You know; from the crap I did in the Mandalorian Wars." She winced, knowing full well that having Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder of any kind was not 'bantha-shit', as she had so mildly put it, but refrained from adding anything to the conversation other than: "I need some water." She looked about the older walls around her and winced as her headache went into overdrive. "Do we have that in this dump?"

She looked up from her headache at the Togorian, watched him sigh heavily and then leave her for a dispenser at the end of the room. He returned with a relatively clean cup of water. "This is all we have." He said, watching the Master Corporal snatch the cup from his hands and drain the water without thought.

He remained silent as she cradled her temples again with a moan of pain and nervously contemplated speaking. "May I ask," he began, his mouth suddenly dry, "what is in these dreams?" He asked very slowly and carefully.

Falcara cyan eyes lifted and glared at him. "Why do you what to know?" She asked curt and aggressive.

Klfdrir shrugged, hoping to seem less threatening. "I am curious. And perhaps, your dreams are trying to send you a message of yourself. It is known by Togoria that dreams are the lifeblood – the conduit of the Great Hunt. What message did you have for yourself within your lifeblood, Falcara Zalo?"

Fal frowned at him for a few moments and thought of lying outright, but something about his tone made her want to tell him the truth. She closed her eyes and tried to remember the last dream. "I… I don't know what this one was." She replied honestly. "I felt like I was dying… only, the smoke was about to clear, then I woke up. Before that I dreamt of Bastilla – someone was judging… weighing the power Bastila had as she fought a Dark Jedi, one of the Revanchists from the beginning of the Jedi Civil War I think. Then I dreamt of Dee... Before that, I dreamt of battles long ago…" She flinched at the words, knowing this wasn't making any sense. "I don't like how they make me feel. It like I'm not me anymore when I'm in them – and that's not in the normal dreamscape kind of way." She opened her eyes and growled before getting to her feet and walking to the water dispenser in the ablution room and retrieving more water herself. "I don't like it." She grunted simply. "I don't feel in control and I hate it." She downed the water and turned round to find Klf sitting in his chair, his face unreadable.

"Perhaps these dreams are just that – a manifestation of your unwillingness to be controlled by others. By Bastila, the death of Demara, your fears, even death itself." He steepled his clawed hands in a meditative gesture. "Perhaps, they are warnings that those aforementioned entities are driving you and you should sake them off before continuing onward." His slit golden eyes held hers as he said it, but Fal shook her head and waved him off.

"Or, I just really, really need to relax before sleeping and stop killing myself over things I can't change." She grunted stubbornly and nearly tripped over a cot. It was one of the emergency cots the Republic put in survival packs on-board escape pods and it's metal exoskeleton was directly at knee level.

She cursed, holding the offended knee with one hand, and slammed the cup on a table near the temporary bunk before noticing that there were two of them, one of which was not full of dark togorian hair and very much empty.

She frowned. "Where is our intrepid commander?" She said pointed at the bunk. "I assume that one's his?"

Klfdrir flinched at the sudden change in subject, but followed her gaze to the obvious conclusion. "Commander Onasi? He has not returned for two days now. He ordered me to care for you as much as possible and construct a weapon or two with whatever I could find without venturing too far from the apartment."

"Apartment?" She looked at her surroundings and realized it did seem to resemble a lower class skyscraper apartment. "How did he get us in one of these? What name is he using to allow the landlord to let us stay here?"

"I believe this entire building and several other ones like it are very much abandoned." Replied the Togorian. "The Commander has observed several other buildings like this one in his scouting about the 'Middle-city', as he calls it, and believes that if we do not draw attention to ourselves that we will not likely be detected by the Sith roaming the streets. Their priority is not 'grunts' like ourselves, but the commanding Jedi you have mentioned named Bastila. Commander Onasi, therefore, believes that we are safe here."

"Scouting about and Sith roaming the streets? How long have I been out?" She rubbed her temples again in annoyance, but the headache was subsiding.

"Three days, including this evening." Replied Klf to her question. "You are recovering quicker than he expected. Commander Onasi was not sure if my attack on you would have caused grievous unrepairable injury. I am glad he was wrong in his assumption. You should be able to aid him more efficiently when he returns since I would be too readily identifiable."

"Wait," she froze, suddenly recognizing the name of the commander. "Commander Onasi? CARTH Onasi? The pilot and Mandalorian War vet?" She looked shocked as she looked back as Klf.

Klf tilted his head to the side. "That is what he claims is his first name? You know him?"

Fal laughed. "'Fleet' Onasi? The guy who piloted the _Courageous_ in the Battles of Vanquo and Serroco? Sith-spit, he wrote the training program I used to complete my basic flight program back at the recruiting station."

Klf frowned. "Vanquo and Serroco? Great victories for the Republic in the Mandalorian Wars?"

Fal snorted. "No, not by a long shot. Serroco was a nuclear disaster, but Vanquo was a major defensive coordination by the Republic Navy, even if it failed. Both of those happened in the first few year after the Jedi decided it was time to stop faffing about and actually _join_ the war. It wasn't until an other year later that we actually started winning the fight." She crossed her arms, smiled and shook her head in folly. "Damn, if I'm a wookie's furry aunt though – Carth Onasi. I've heard that guy practically sweats luck since he got promoted. We might just have a chance at getting off this world with him hanging around." She looked about for a second chair, picked it up and brought it to sit in front of a very somber Klfdrir.

She ignored his attitude and immediately asked. "We are on Taris, right? Unless we somehow managed to evade the entirety of the Sith Fleet that nearly blew us out of the sky and landed on an other inhabitable planet?"

Klf snorted at her. "This is Taris, yes. After I incapacitated you, we got into an escape pod and launched into the atmosphere with little delay." His ears twitched at the memory. "I understand now how the commander was able to avoid being targeted by the Sith weaponry if he is as skilled a pilot as you claim."

Fal chuckled. "I doubt that had anything to do with the commander. The Sith were and still are after Bastila Shan – and they want her alive by all accounts. They would have blockaded the planet and waited for our pod to land and make sure Bastila wasn't on it before blowing us out of the sky. They would have thrown a tractor beam on us if we hadn't gone for the planet."

Klf nodded in agreement. "That is an other possibility, I suppose." He shrugged again. "Regardless, we made it to this planet and our escape pod crashed into a warehouse. We escaped quite quickly and made our way into the crowds. The Commander was able to find some citizens of this district who were sympathetic to the Republic and acquired some simply clothing and tools for us." He nodded towards Falcara. "That is why you're uniform is gone, Falcara Zalo – it would have been very simple to spot."

She looked down at her attire and raised her eyebrows in surprise. Gone was the red and gold Republic Nay uniform. Instead, she found a grey log-sleeved shirt and over jacket vest with comfortable cargo pants. The only thing Carth had kept on her had to have been her undergarments and her boots – standard issue and easy to purchase off world.

"Didn't even keep the verpine fiber mesh?" Complained the Master Corporal feeling the vest with disgust.

Klf cackled, his canines showing fiercely, but they were not threatening in the sound. He motioned with one claw towards an old, decrepit strongbox in the corner of the room. "There lies what is left of the Republic soldier identification you and the Commander held so dearly. I have not touched much, though I believe Commander Onasi has sold some gear for a few credits to stabilize our predicament."

Fal was up and gunning for the box within a second and Klf chuckled at her doing so. There was no use going back to sleep now since Falcara clearly had no plans to do so. He sighed at the lack of sleep he had to endure – his ears picked up every sound near their door with incredible accuracy and he had not slept well since they had come here. Instead of joining her at the strongbox, he decided to return to the workbench and pulled his vibrosc'rath – a modified Togorian long blade with ultrasonic vibration within the blade and hilt to make it easier to cut all types of resistant material – into a new position in preparation to build a neurotoxin release mechanism at the tip of the blade through a mechanical release at the hilt.

He grinned without looking when he heard Falcara shout in triumph at finding her own vibrobayonet, old tactical-vest and targeting visor intact within the strongbox. He clicked the macro-welder power-up procedure and began welding the tiny components to the hilt first.

"There is a vibroblade in that locker as well." He said, not looking up from his work. "A small blaster is also there, but from observing the surrounding area I would suggest keeping that well hidden. The Sith have confiscated most blasters and many projectile weapons in their recent raids, but they do not seem to care about citizens walking around with blades… especially not in this part of the city. However, since you clearly have a proficiency with such weapons, I do believe the Sith troopers will be surprised if we encounter them in an unpleasant situation."

Moments later, he heard the easy rushing sound of a short-vibroblade being unsheathed as Falcara inspected the weapon.

"I have coated it with a layer of Durasteel bonding alloy that the commander was able to find for me in trade for some other items – the arms dealers here are finding other ways to find credits within the confines of their new Sith overlords' constraints. The blade should be more resistant to damage and retaining a keen edge for far longer under duress now." He said, carefully placing a series of dexterous welding finishes on a small circuit board within the hilt.

Fal grinned, taking to her feet and throwing a few experimental swings around the room. She added a few more complicated blade movements near the end of her testing and nodded at the blade with admiration. "Weight's good, regardless of what you did to it." She commented lightly. "Thanks."

"You are most welcome, Falcara Zalo." Klf attached a new layer of small circuit boards to the one he had just added. "Commander Onasi will be returning shortly. We can see what progress he has made within the city. In meantime, we have more food and a good supply of water. There are nutrient-bars sitting in a small bag on the far side of the commander's bunk – you may wish to regain some energy."

Klf didn't look up from his work, but Fal nodded at him anyway. Her arms felt like putty after three days of being out of action and she wanted to at least be able to swing her new blade at someone properly when she needed to. That meant she needed to eat and drink a bit more before some practice strikes. She retrieved three bars from the bag and refilled the cup she had used. She sat down on her own bunk and began her small feast, setting her blade down, propped up against the wall within arms reach as she fed herself.

She had only had about half of what she considered to be 'enough-to-survive' when the sound of a blaster going off in the hallway made her jump up, vibrosword in hand. She unclipped the holster at her hip, but did not draw her pistol, and looked over to find that Klf had hastily put his weapon back together and was making for the door.

She followed, taking up position to the right of the large door while Klf held made the monitor on the other side of the entrance blink to life.

"_Now that is what we do to smart-mouthed aliens who cannot follow simple instructions."_ Came a male human voice speaking Basic over the monitor's small speakers. _"Now everyone will get up against the wall, immediately, or I will kill this other one and not stop shooting until we are obeyed!"_

"A Sith raiding party to the right of our door. Less than a few feet away in the wide hallway. Five members: four armoured, one commander in a fabric uniform; all armed with blaster rifles." He said loud enough for Fal to hear, but still using the camera outside the door to observe the situation. "They have shot down and most likely killed a member of a species with blue skin and large eyes that is unknown to me and are now planning on doing the same for an other of the same species, it seems, though – he? – is not resisting." He looked at the master corporal as if waiting for her to make a decision.

She grinned. "Five versus two in a close-quarters surprise attack?" She shrugged at him. "Sounds like good odds to me. Open the door and get ready to attack, Klf."

Klf tilted his head at her. "This is… unwise." He said simply.

Fal glared at him. "And if it was you out there with your friend and we were hesitating to help in here?" She shot with derision.

Klf ears flicked back and forth and his lips pursed forward in indecision. Then, he huffed in defeat and motioned his free hand towards the door's controls. "I will count to three. Head for the one in the commander's uniform first and work your way out. I will take the closest one to our door and move inward."

Fal nodded and flipped her sword once in preparation. "Deal."

On Klf's count to three, the door slid open with a heavy clunk and Falcara ran out at a breakneck pace towards her target. The vibroblade was clean through the commander's chest before his comrades had realized that someone had come between them. Fal was able to pull out her sword in time to carve a side-ways two-handed swipe across the chest and through the rifle and armour of the second closest soldier. Klfdrir roared as he attacked two flanking soldiers with his curved vibrosc'rath, effectively keeping them from shooting Falcara by tossing one into the wall of the hallway and cutting the limbs off the other. A blaster shot sung passed her arm as her victim's partner tried to fire on her from an awkward angle trying not to hit her victim. She dipped left, putting the trooper she'd attacked fully in between her and the partner's laser bolts momentarily, and swung her sword back, under and up before her victim could draw the pistol on his hip. She thrust the vibrosword deep into the chest of the trooper she'd just opened like a can and drew her pistol as he screamed and fell. She took aim with one hand still griping the vibrosword in the dead body and prepared to fire at the Sith trooper who had no helmet. She aimed for only a few seconds before seeing Klf's giants furred hands wrap around the enemy woman's head and twist it around one-eighty degrees with a horrible, squishy ripping sound.

Fal knelt, pulled her weapon out of its current corpse-sheath and turned to the sound of the soldier Klf had thrown aside into the wall grunting up from his back. He knelt and fired two groggy shots at her.

One of them grazed her as she dropped down to one knee to avoid them, but suddenly the sound of an other blaster went off and the Sith trooper's helmet was black from the impact, stunning him before he could fire again and throwing him back against the wall once again, but not killing him. Klf stalked over the corpse of the female trooper to the stunned prey at the wall and took the Sith's helmeted head in his hands. The sound of the twisting spine, flesh and neck echoed more than the last and Falcara winced in renewed horror.

"Nice to see you up and about instead of thrashing around in your sleep." Carth Onasi removed his hood and stepped out of the small, terrified group of aliens surrounding the scene with his blaster-pistol still raised and smoking from the shot.

Fal looked up at the commander and schooled her features. She got back to her feet, holstered her own pistol, dusted off the smoldering material on her grazed shoulder and placed her hand on her hip with a grace and nonchalance that rivaled most royalty. "'Bout time you got back while I'm conscious." She chimed, leaning down to pick her vibrosword out the Sith Trooper's corpse. "Where have you been?"

Carth raised an eyebrow at her as he came closer to them. "No 'sir' at the end of that?"

Falcara stared at him, her eyes dark and cold, then swiftly closed the distance between them. "How about we not advertise rank structure near the desperate looking locals?" She said gritting her teeth through the whisper.

He stared back at her, his expression equally unsavory. "Right, cause' these folks would think that we just slaughtered a Sith section out of the kindness of our hearts."

Fal frowned at him. "Things are that bad here?" She asked, her eyes darting to the crowd that was steadily getting smaller and smaller as more people began gathering enough courage to leave. She looked back at him, her expression still hard, but not unyielding. "You're telling me no one would else would have stepped up to save the duros over there from being _murdered_? From possibly _everybody here_ being gunned down like vermin?" Her voice was thick with disgust.

"In time, perhaps," replied the duros stepping up to the two humans and togorian. "But not at my moment of need and not so well. Nor would anyone expect a human to do such a thing for one not of their own kind. You are clearly Republic soldiers." He held out his hands in calm as both humans bristled visibly. "Calm, friends. You will find only an ally in me, humans. You have saved my life and I will do what little I can to keep you safe." He turned to the other duros' dead body. "Poor Ixgil." Said the blue-skinned alien, kneeling to observe the deadly wound on his friend's chest. "He should never have talked back to the Sith." He said, making a series of symbols with his fingers above the body. "Safer travels, my friend."

He got to his feet with a huff and turned to the two soldiers and Klf. "You need not worry about the bodies – I shall see to it that they are removed and the evidence hidden. I would, however, suggest that you not stay in this apartment complex for very long. The Sith will surely be informed that their troops were killed here and many will not hesitate to describe all of you in detail to avoid injury from the raiding parties. Though that might take some time – the Sith are not welcome here and anyone who deals with them will be met with many non-human violence."

Some of the remaining crowd agreed in various languages. Fal smiled at that: allies in the slums? Well, you have to start somewhere.

"I will collect what I can from the apartment and meet the two of you as soon as possible." Said Klf deadpan and logical before leaving the group for the apartment door.

Carth nodded in agreement, holstered his pistol with clean efficiency and watched as the Duro pulled out his communicator and began speaking in a quick, throaty, low- tambour language. He eyed him suspiciously.

"He's contacting his brother and some friends to help him clean up." Said Falcara coming to the commander's side in a low voice.

Carth jumped at that. "You understand his language?" He asked her just as lowly.

Fal nodded. "And can speak it too. Basic was made with most Durese phonetics in mind, though it's a little more guttural. I wouldn't encourage having me sing in it or anything, but I can speak it fluently enough."

Carth nodded again. "That'll come in handy – I've seen a lot of Duros in the lower city apartments and in the slums up here. Can you speak Ithorian too?"

Fal frowned at him. "Uh, you know ithorians have four throats and two mouths, right? They have a stereophonic native language that pretty much no other species can mimic without tech help. Fortunately, they can speak other languages. It's more likely the ithorian you met was speaking a type of Bocce, which, yes, I can only say a few words in since I only have one pair of vocal folds, but I can understand most dialects of it."

Carth nodded at that too and continued to watch the duros' conversation.

Fal raised an eyebrow. "You're gonna hurt your neck if you do that too much you know." She commented wryly.

He glared at her a little. "You're sure he's contacted his brother?" He asked more forcefully than Fal thought comfortable.

"Positive." She replied curtly. "His brother's bringing his gang from an other slum in the upper city to help clean up the mess – I think we should be long gone by then though."

Another nod.

"Do you know of an other safe house?" She asked, her frustration creeping into her voice. "Or are we going to wander until we find a way off this rock?"

Carth finally responded with something other than a question and nod. "There are other abandoned apartments in the lower city where we can set up camp – the Sith have cleaned them out. I'm more worried about actually getting there without being considered by the patrols, though. The elevators of that section of the city are now under heavy guard."

Fal shrugged. "That one's easy: strip the troopers with intact armour here, get passed as a patrol group with hired guns and set up camp."

Carth blinked at her. "That… makes a lot of sense. It might work."

Fal grinned and began walking up to the duros. "I'll ask him that we'll be talking the two uniforms that are salvageable." She stopped suddenly, however, and turned back. "But it will be harder to get a ship when we're practically underground. Do you have a plan for that to?"

Carth shook his head. "We aren't leaving until we find Bastila anyways and there are pods that crashed in the undercity that haven't been found yet. Our next course should be to find her."

Fal's shoulders sagged and she groaned. "Of course, we aren't trying to leave yet." She said, rolling her eyes. She sighed and nodded. "The sooner we find the Jedi Princess, the faster we get off this rock. Sith-spit I hate fetching things."

End Chapter

_*Schutta is an insult from a Twi'lek dialect that describes a weasel-like animal on their world. Humans use it a lot too. Atton Rand uses it in KOTOR 2. Essentially, I was looking for the Star Wars equivalent to 'bitch' and 'rancora' wasn't going to cut it. If you say it out loud, some other members of the Germanic language tree might think you're just trying to say 'scooter' with their accent though… be careful because Germans especially have no problem laughing at you if you're being a douche – they are awesome that way._

_**A female cat who has reached maturity is called a 'queen' and a non-mature female is called a 'molly', thus I used queen in reference to Krtryrg's mother. A male cat (mature or not) is called a 'tom' and a spayed male cat is a 'gib'. A group of cats is called a 'clowder', 'glaring', or 'clutter' – the first of which isn't recognized in Microsoft Word as a real word for some reason. I thought I'd share my 'You Learn Something New Everyday'. Now I can successfully say: "I have attempted to herd a clowder of queens and toms unsuccessfully." Because now that I know, I will endeavour to use them whenever possible to confuse the hell out of everyone. _

_A.N.:_

_So, I went through Wookieepedia and have found that I wasn't the only one to do the whole "Togorian looking for his mate thing". Apparently, Muuurgh is a Togorian from a book featuring Han Solo called Paradise Snare – I have not read it, but I have a feeling I should. I was kinda relieved that I had read the culture well enough that it's practically a given that a male will seek out his mate across the worlds if she goes missing, but also kind of sad because I thought no one else had done it. I originally only knew about Togorians through an old Start Wars Encyclopedia that was published before the corruption of episodes 1,2 and 3, so I went off the description of the culture from that. Oh well, you can already tell that Klf is a different character from Muuurgh tho. Also, his name is easier to pronounce and doesn't sound like you had a lobotomy when you try to say it. That's with a forced 'h' between the 'k' and 'l', by the way. Phonetics would call it an 'aspirated k' – which is terribly labeled, I know, because it's expiration, but Linguistics can be a bitch like that sometimes. Throw an 'e' in there if you really want to say his name in a bastardized way if you like. (Why would you be even saying his name aloud though?...)_

… _In other news, I finished Mass Effect 3 again (what is that, 4 playthroughs now?) and I still, even with the DLC, feel like the endings aren't as awesome as they could have been. For the record, I didn't think the idea they rolled with for the release-ending was as bad as everyone says it is, but I agree that it was poorly executed to the point where even a brain-damaged Pyjak would say: 'WTF?'. I understand that, to quote Ms. You-are-awesome-I-would-marry-you Jennifer Hale: "endings are hard"; however, just because they're hard doesn't mean you pull a Deus Ex on us without a little more effort put into it. I like the ability to fill plotholes and make it seem a little more fleshed out with DLC even though there are still some questions I have about what actually happened, no matter what choice you make... _

_But the music is good, right? :D And it's free on the Bioware Social Network! Do I seem a little bitter? I'm not bitter… -.-_

_I suppose I better start kicking around some ideas since I have the time and maybe place more than one story on here. I REALLY like themarshal's "Returned" idea, but she's doing so well with it that I fear contaminating her greatness with my rubbish, so I might not even touch on something like it. Meanwhile, N.Q. Wilder's "Never Again" and "After" are just so damn awesome, I feel like I should just take my time and come up with something completely different. _

_If you haven't read either of those authors' stuff on this site: fix that._

_P.S. (Stop rolling your eyes at me!) I cannot believe I managed to fit that 'far, far away' line somehow. WOOT! I am NERD! Here me spout the Jedi Code! BWAHAHAHA!_

_P.P.S. Apologizing for lateness of completion…. :S_


	4. Chapter 4: On the Names that Were

A.N.: _Hey! Look! It's Mission! Also, Carth gets some facetime with Fal…. Much more than I expected, but long chapters seem to be my speciality, so - EH! Why not?_

Disclaimer: All Stars Warzes belongs to Lucasarts, Bioware and now Disney.

Chapter 4: On the Names that Were

"Is that a Wookie?" Asked Fal nodding towards a large furry creature in the corner as he sat down at Carth's table in the lower city cantina. The tables and walls didn't look in any way like they had been cleaned in the last several years and there was a smell that Fal couldn't and truly didn't want to identify wafting around them in the crowded common area by the central bar, but the beer was surprisingly good and she and Carth had found a table today, instead of leaning on a wall or trying their hand at the low-betting pazzak card games in order to get information about the lower-city. She placed her second pint of her bitter brew on the table as Carth stretched his neck out to look at the direction she had nodded.

"It does seem to resemble one, yes." He confirmed, eyes narrowing the wookie meekly eating a meal of some animal meat. "But I've never seen one try to look so small and inconspicuous before." He eyed the wookie suspiciously and Fal punched him in the shoulder hard enough to bruise.

"Blast it!" Cried Carth, rubbing the spot emphatically through his jacket. "What in blazes – did you just punch me?!"

Fal innocently took a sip of her beer before replying simply: "Of course, I hit you. I did it to stop you from suspecting the poor creature of being some kind of nightmarish Sith infiltrator. Seriously, what's wrong with you?" She indicated that the question was rhetorical by simply ignoring his reaction and observing their neighbours for signs of what they were looking for. She began scanning the crowd and getting a feel for the moods of certain figures that stood out from the common rabble either because they wanted to or were trying to avoid contact with others altogether.

The wookie was on her list, of course, as his only concern seemed to be his food though he looked about him every few moments as if looking for someone.

There were some off-duty military personnel here too – she could tell by the way they moved and drank their liquor. There was a sultry-looking blond in the corner of a table staring intently at a half-empty glass of something multi-coloured. There was something about the woman that made Fal's gaze linger and she frowned trying to place what it was.

Finding nothing but a feeling in her gut to keep the woman in her peripherals, she sighed before moving on to the rest of the crowd.

There was a Paaerduag beside the bar in the pazzak den trying not to be noticed by anyone, but he was more likely to be hiding from zealots – even in the Lower City, non-humans seemed to be treated poorly. It must be even harder for an alien that essentially looked like a small reptilian dwarf attached to the back of a large bi-pedal creature to not be subject to ridicule. She wondered why the non-human had chosen to stay in the pazzak den, however, since humans with any sort of credit-chit would be coming and going from that place like prey to waterholes. Her curiosity was stated when an armed twi'lek male came walking up to it. Fal looked stunned as a credit-chit was exchanged between the two of them. The twi'lek nodded and made his way towards another room where several well-armed thugs were coming in and out and two easily spotted bodyguards controlled who came and went The twi'lek passed the guards without incident – in fact, they deliberately moved other out of the way for him. _The Paaerduag must have some contacts with the Guild or is posting his own bounties up_, she thought making a note of the possible income to support their mission. She also observed the line-up just before the arch and made a note to bribe a server or bartender for information first.

Bounty Hunters were incredibly common in this part of the galaxy so close to the Hydian Way. Since the Civil War had started, said trade route was being used more and more by a large Bounty Hunters Guild that used several proxy House Guilds to conduct it's business. The profit made from that business made it very easy to get contracts on Taris and other planets along the trade route – Fal had seen over one hundred Bounties posted for Core World targets just yesterday and there were twenty-two more today. Whoever ran this secret Guild along this piece of the galaxy was still doing it illegally for all the Hydian way was so close to Hutt space. Fal actually suspected, since they hadn't been shut down yet, that the Guild was simply another Hutt faction using the political chaos of the war to gain more income since the bounty room in the back had been set up with a Hutt at it's head. It surprised her just how public the whole thing was though. Most Guilds were a lot more subtle about where to get jobs such as the ones she observed were now advertised so publicly, but the war was expanding everyday and Bounty Hunting would surely bring some good credits to areas in the chaos.

There was another arch beside the one that lead to the Bounty Room that lead to a stage room and small dance floor where a band was playing with some twi'lek dancers in the foreground. Animalistic and base in nature, the music was actually very soothing to Fal, though she doubted the people getting played by the human with the red shirt were inclined to think so. He was using an offer to meet the band to scam credits – she'd seen him do it three times in the last two days at different times during the last few days.

He appeared again today, she thought seething. The man was certainly trying his luck – it was only a matter of time before someone less inclined to keep hidden as she was would scare him into submission, simply kill him for slighting them, or simply take what he'd snatched and leave him cold and dry.

She noticed a young Twi'lek approaching him now and blinked in surprise over a sip of beer. The kid couldn't have been more than fifteen and she was sauntering over to the swindler with the confidence and grace of a practised woman.

Fal gripped her glass tighter, thinking of a way to keep the girl out of trouble without suspicion, then watched in awe as the swindler completely ignored the girl and lost his credit chit to her right out from his back pocket.

The young Twi'lek skipped back to a safe distance and then grinned back at the human man who'd just noticed that his chit had been stolen and was now looking around in horror. She wormed her way through the crowd and appeared beside the main bar. She went up to the counter and gave the bartender something out of the bag the blue-skinned girl had tied to her back. The bartender laughed, overjoyed at whatever he had received and clapped the girl on her shoulder. After a few words masked by the music, the bartender pointed towards the wookie.

The Twi'lek smiled and walked towards the hairy-creature. The wookie was up in a flash and gave the young Twi'lek a hug that saw her disappear briefly in the mountain of fur.

Fal grinned at the reunion and looked on as the two sat down. _Smart kid, _she thought taking another sip._ She's getting along just fine, it seems. _She sighed wistfully_. At least some people aren't completely miserable with all the horrible things going around down here_. She thought with a bittersweet angle, watching as the Twi'lek started telling what was obviously a very enthusiastic story.

Some thugs approached the couple and while Fal couldn't hear what was being said, but she almost got out of her seat again.

The Wookie, however, got to its feet and snarled loudly at the intruders, making patrons in the bar jump with the bullies.

A heated conversation issued between the two parties, but the thugs did subside in the wake of an angry Wookie – as any sensible person would – though their threats did continue for a few moments before they fled in a posturing manner.

Fal cringed at their threats and the aggressive, yet fleeing conduct of their departure. She had wanted to walk over and find out just how much she had to beat the arrivals by finding out what they had said, but controlled herself enough to keep herself a-seat (seriously, that's not a word, English? Fine, have a hyphened compound word… grrr. Damn, I never thought I'd miss German compound words. WOOO! Drunk on New-Years and writing! Go Go GAGET ZACHARA!DO NOT STOP! BWAHAHA!).

As the subjects passed her and Carth's table, Fal noticed the symbol on their shoulders. _Vulkars_, she thought with a sneer of disgust.

The Black Vulkars were a Lower City gang that was slowly gaining power down here due to circumstantial actions. Since the Sith occupation about a week or so ago, the Vulkars had started an alliance with any and all Sith occupational soldiers or members. Fal had heard of at least four surviving Republic officers being captured by the Vulkars and sent to an unknown fate with the Sith after they had found a way up into the Lower City. Needless to say after such news, she could no longer stop herself from systematically hating any members of the gang.

The Hidden Beks, the other major gang down here, were failing miserably in turf wars since they had decided now to completely ally themselves with the Sith. Falcara didn't trust either groups, but her faith in the Beks was higher than anything the Vulkars could offer – especially since the Beks had not attacked them directly.

She and Carth had returned to their abandoned apartment recently only to find that Klf had quickly and efficiently killed some Black Vulkar members who had come calling for profit or information regarding Republic soldiers. They had hid the bodies in another apartment far away from their own to avoid suspicion, but the group had actively avoided the Vulkars to ensure that the group wouldn't actively get wind of Fal, Carth and Klfdrir.

The togorian had lain low to keep any interested parties from actively looking for the group – after all, two humans were less difficult to track than a specific company of one particularly coloured togorian since there were a lot of humans on Taris. He was very displeased with everything he had observed from his place in the Lower City.

The desperation in this area of Taris since the Sith occupation was discouraging to everyone, not just the morally obliged togorian. The Hidden Beks had played the more benevolent role in the current situation, which had endeared to the group to them, but Fal had a feeling that no matter what was done, there was no way to save this part of the Under City. This world they lived in was full of crime now – more than she could possible comprehend according to those who had lived down here their entire lives. The Sith occupation had ended any local governing law outside the Sith Code in the Low City and, thus, the aggressive nature of the streets here had exploded in violence. The profit within the chaos had also increased due to the bounties revealed for crashed Republic-ship pods or even evidence that was prominent in the Lower City, causing the not only the gangs but any of the local populous to look for any and all clues to the Republic ship debris.

The Master Corporal sighed at the situation, but resisted the urge to complain about it to Carth. The nature of all creatures was to survive and down here, all races seemed to understand that to a terrifying degree. She wished it wasn't so, but could do nothing to contradict the situation on any real degree, and regretted it sorrowfully as she contemplated the crowd of such desperate creatures around her – herself included, disturbingly.

She was so entrenched in her thoughts on the matter that she didn't notice that Carth had not stopped glaring at her. He waited a few moments for her to put her beer down completely before sliding his hand in and taking it away abruptly.

Fal reached down to take her none-existent glass and jerked her head down in shock at it's sudden disappearance – she wasn't _that_ drunk already, surely; she'd hardly had more than two pints! Then she looked sideways to find Carth drinking _her_ beer.

Her upper lip twitched in irritation. _Son of a_ – "You really want me to shoot you soon, don't you?" She growled at him.

"It would be more of a threat if you had said you wanted to cut me with that blade of yours." She replied nodding toward said vibroblade. "I haven't seen you shoot at all yet, but I know you can cut me into small diced pieces if you wanted to."

"Shot, cut-up, or flayed – Whatever the pain, I'm seriously thinking about it." Replied Fal in a low voice – her patience was running thin with this man yet again. He was always rubbing her the wrong way – always so damn suspicious. It didn't help matters between the two as the past few days of looking for a way to get into the Undercity and the escape pods hidden there had been unsuccessful. She was getting tiered – inability to sleep due to the damn nightmares not withstanding – of the frustrations. "Give me back my beer." She demanded flatly. "We agreed that the credits we took from the Black Vulkars thugs trying to kill us yesterday were to be separated between all three of us for personal equipment and what food we could find. I found some beer in our pretend-but-really-recon downtime. Give it back."

"You'll get it back once you answer my questions – there doesn't seem to be any other way of holding your attention." Said Carth evenly.

Fal snorted. "You're interrogating me now? What, am I under suspicion of consorting with the enemy too?"

"Maybe." Replied Carth, stone-faced.

Fal's jaw dropped slightly. She had to physically restrain herself from rolling her eyes and slapping her palm to her forehead in absolute hopelessness. "You have got to be kidding me, Carth…" She groaned.

"I'm not."

"Of course, you aren't." Fal pinched the bridge of her nose and took a long deep breath to calm herself before looking at the Commander attentively. "Alright, Fleet, shoot me with your questions already."

Carth looked taken aback, but recovered into an absorbed gaze. "That's it? No hassle?"

Fal frowned at him in consternation. "You have my beer hostage. Ask away before I just take it back by force and leave."

Carth raised his eyebrows in mild surprise, but nodded. "First, I want to ask you about what happened on the Spire."

"Which part?" Replied Fal leaning back in her chair and crossing her legs.

"The part where a scout from the Outer Rim Territories gets assigned to a vessel for no viable reason." He said shortly.

Fal raised her eyebrows at that and laughed. "Your guess is as good as mine. I was sent to Coruscant with the impression that I was going to be given to a field unit of some kind. Then, I show my ID to the Republic Army Rep controlling the transfer station and I end up ordered to the Fleet." She shook her head at the words. "I thought I was being punished for something. I specifically requested a transfer to an Infantry Regiment on the heavy fighting on Eriadu to try and keep the Rimma Trade Route and Hydian Way open to the Mid Rim planets. My record from Bakura and in-ship fighting above Endor when the Republic began a full retreat are exemplary but, they didn't tell me why my request wasn't approved and told me to report to the Fleet Rep for transfer to the _Spire_'s security forces."

Carth nodded at that, rubbing his chin absently and thinking back. "That was probably the Jedi's doing. When they got on the Ship with Bastilla in command, they made numerous changes to the roster of the ship. I agree that your file was pretty impressive and I'm sorry you didn't get back to ground-fighting like you wanted. The Captain was furious about all the last-minute changes for a while and only managed to keep a handful of his original crew in the end."

Fal blinked hard at him in surprise. "You've read my file since the Spire's destruction?"

Carth shook his head. "No, when the Jedi kept changing the rosters, the Captain had me put on watch for profiles that stuck out – there were quite a few, but yours was one of the files I ended up putting in a collection of 'hardened veterans' – though I only had time to skim it for most part."

"Then why are you so suspicious of me?" She asked angrily.

"Because you haven't answered all my questions yet." Said the commander, persistent.

Fal threw her hands up in frustration and then lent back into her chair, crossing her arms in mild fury. "Fine." She said through gritted teeth. "What else do you want to know?"

"How about the fact that you can use the Force to beat a dent the size of my head into a blast-door?" He asked bluntly, ignoring her anger.

Fal chuckled. "Which head?" She playfully raised her eyebrows several times up and down at him and looked directly at his crotch.

Carth opened his mouth, his eyes crinkled in confusion, and then glared at her when he understood what she had said. "Stop playing around and answer the question." He said, little to no impatience creeping into his voice.

"You're no fun at all." Said Fal, pouting and crossing her arms like an angry two-year-old. But Carth simply waited, keeping his hand around the beer glass with a calm demeanour and a cool gaze.

She sighed. "Look," she began sitting up and placing both hands on the table to emphasize her movement. "I'll tell you what I told the Jedi –"

"The Jedi?" Inquired Carth. "Which Jedi?"

Fal sighed again and this time couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Yes, the Jedi. There was a Jedi that Dee and I met while trying to get to the escape pods. She saved our asses and –" She stopped, suddenly realizing something. "Wait, you knew her! She said you'd sent her to collect whatever groups of soldiers were remaining. Dark and short hair, bight blue eyes, tall – she had an azure lightsaber and white robes."

Carth nodded. "Jedi Knight Alicia Costello." Said the Commander, remembering right away. "She was Bastilla's second in command."

_Alicia_. Fal's heart made a painful tug at the memory of the Jedi that she now knew by name. She closed her eyes for a moment and held by her tears in time to take a steadying breath.

Carth, in the meantime, was confused, but saw the pained look on Falcara face. "You didn't know her name?" He asked carefully.

Fal shook her head. "Never asked. Should have though." She looked back at the Commander. "She died for us – that much I know. We wouldn't have made it down the hallway had she not faced him."

Carth nodded in understanding. "I'm sorry. It must have been worse when Jenwek sacrificed herself for us too." He hesitated, not sure whether or not to continue his line of questioning. "Did… did the Jedi know? About your Force connection?"

Again Fal nodded solemnly, looking at the liquid and bubbles in her glass intently. "She said she's had a vision about me." The Master Corporal relayed the tale of her encounter with the Jedi with Carth hanging on every word. Then she started telling further back than that, even going so far as to recount Trask's death in detail. She knew she skipping around then, almost hopelessly lost in the timeline of what had happened, but she couldn't stop once she had started. She left out her dreams though, since she didn't know what to make of them anymore than Carth could possibly guess, but also mentioned some her past missions and battles, sometimes refereeing to them in great detail and sometimes referring to them in small confused sentences.

She wasn't sure why she kept talking. She was pissed with Carth only moments ago. Why would she share so much of her past now? And, _by the force_, why was she blathering it all out with as much eloquence as one expected from a wookie dialect? But whenever she expected the commander to stop her, he didn't. Nor did he look at her as if she were crazy or someone to be pitied. He simply sat quietly and listened – that is was what kept her talking.

When she ended her telling with her coming into the escape pods to meet with him, she finally took some much needed deep breaths and then two huge gulps of beer – Carth didn't fight her when she reached for it. She sighed in relief. It always felt good to talk about these things after the fact – she just never liked starting, or getting through it.

She looked up to see Carth was regarding her curiously. "What?" She grunted, uncomfortable under his gaze and resenting the piteous look in them.

"You've been through a lot." He said plainly, the pitiable look not waning from his gaze.

She tilted her head at him. There was something else to those words that moved him – something that made those words as relevant for him as they were to her. "From what I've heard of you, you have too." She replied, searching his face for more clues – this was the first time he'd opened up in days about anything other than wariness or distrust and she wasn't about to let him go.

Carth shifted in his seat, disturbed by the comment, but not completely thrown off. "What exactly have you heard?"

Again, Fal shrugged. "Mostly stuff to do with your previous engagements with the Sith – battles won and lost and such." That didn't draw anything too jarring to the surface – she could tell by the look in his eyes. "You weren't with the fleet for a bit in the early part of the war, if I remember right." That caught something in him and she knew she'd have to tread carefully. "What was up with that? You don't feel like a deserter, so where did you –" _Slam!_ That hit a nerve too far and Carth slammed his fist into the table to stop her from speaking any further.

Only a few tables looked up at the sudden noise, but they saw Fal place a hand on his wrist in a gesture of affection and lightly say: "Honey…" in a worried voice. Most assumed that they were a couple in an argument after that, some chuckling and some pitying one or both of them, and slowly returned to their business.

Carth's eyes darted around for a few moments in the aftermath and flinched from Fal's touch when he realised that it was there.

A waitress came over and Falcara played the worried wife. "We'll be leaving soon." She reassured the waitress under her breath as if it were a secret. "I promise. Can we get the bill?"

The waitress nodded, giving a warning glance to Carth for either Fal's benefit or the bar's, and disappeared to collect a credit-transfer.

When she was out of earshot, Falcara dipped her head next to Carth's ear. "Are you crazy?!" She hissed angrily. "Calm down. I didn't mean to upset you that badly…"

"My wife died in my arms when the Sith attacked my homeworld four years ago." He croaked out suddenly, sending Falcara jumping back in utter shock. "The Sith bombarded my whole planet and I didn't get there in time." There came a horrible sound out of his throat then, one that could have been a cry of pain or despair, or both. "I refused active service and stayed on the planet looking for my son for a while... That's why was I wasn't fighting for a time."

There was a terrible silence between them.

"Oh…" was all Fal could muster, her jaw hanging limp for a few moments. "I'm so sorry, Carth." She said honestly.

He sighed and ran his hand through his hair heavily. "It's alright." He said, rubbing his eyes and refusing to look at her. "It wasn't your fault and I was pushing you so you pushed back – it's only natural."

Fal watched his tired face for a moment and placed an awkward, tentative hand on his back. She lent down to match his now hunched over position. "You're from Telos?" She asked lowly.

Carth nodded curtly.

Fal frowned. "Wasn't… wasn't Telos guarded by a large Republic fleet and ground forces? It was a strategically significant planet and it had some significant production facilities." She said racking her brain for the tactical information relevant at the time. The luxury planet had converted a lot of its commerce to making and repairing armour for both ships and soldiers if she remembered right. That would have made it a major target, but the Republic would have set a blockade up and guiding patrols for all exports and imports.

"It was." Replied Carth darkly, almost snarling now. "Admiral Saul Karath was in command of a Sith fleet and used his rank to assuage the Republic forces that there was no threat. He betrayed them – sent the Sith fleet fly in a surprise attack using our codes to bypass Republic scanners. He brought down every Republic starship out of the space; then send the planet below to a fiery grave. He betrayed the Republic – betrayed all of us and bombed the planet into rubble as a sign of loyalty to Lord Malak." He spat out the words like they were poison. He steeled himself suddenly, a rage filling his heart and mind. "I've devoted my life since coming to my senses to killing him and his master. He and his kind diverse NO mercy."

Falcara face screwed into one that mirrored the commander's rage. "Son of a Kath Hound." She'd heard that Saul Karath was now the most notorious Admiral in the Sith Navy, but she hadn't known just what he'd done to secure the position. Now, he felt disgusted with the man. _I'm going to need a stronger drink after this_. She thought absently, trying to calm herself a little.

She looked back at Carth, remembering everything he'd said in conjunction with the attack on his homeworld. "Did you find him?" She asked with dread. "Your son? Did you find him on Telos?"

The Commander covered his face completely then in grief, thinking was about to cry. "No." Said his muffled voice beneath his hands. "I looked everywhere… Followed inquiries like a religion, but nothing was ever found of him…" He pulled them from his face in time for Fal to see the hatred in his eyes. "I trusted Saul. He was my friend and my mentor." He growled. "I trusted him and betrayed me and everything he stood for." He looked at Fal wearily. "I lost everything because of that trust and I will never make that mistake again. I'm sorry."

And there is was – the entire reason Carth had been such a pain in her neck to begin with. _Trust_: what's in a word?

She fell back against her chair then, unsure of what to say or even how to say it. How do you say anything to something like what Carth just told her?

"Tell me about them?" She decided to offer as softly as she could.

The commander seemed taken aback by that. "What?" He asked, perplexed.

Fal looked towards her nearly done beer. "Your son and your wife." She clarified to her glass.

There was a long silence then, even if Fal could hear the beating of the music and the rest of the cantina around her like an intrusive guest to their conversation.

"Dustil…" Began Carth painfully. "Dustil was more like his mother then he was like me." He said wincing. "Maybe that's because I was gone for most of his early teens because I was in the war. He looked like me, at least when he was younger, but he was always moving forward; always trying to find places he wasn't allowed into and wouldn't stop until the mystery of the place was solved. He never did anything halfway and hated to be tricked or surprised, even if only to poke fun at him."

"Parveena, though, she was…" he struggled with the memory now – Fal knew, even though she refused to look at him. "Courageous, I think is the word." He confessed with difficulty. "And very, very stubborn." He laughed at that, though it was fleeting and rough.

He stared intently at the master corporal to his side. "Actually, you remind me of her a little." He commented, looking at her from a different angle. "She'd never give up anything once she set her mind to it."

Fal raised one eyebrow again and then frowned at him. "That's not the best pickup line I've heard." She confessed cautiously. "'You remind me of my dead wife.'" She shook her head and took a last gulp of her drink. "Yeah, that's not one I usually get on a regular basis." Her tone was heavy and sombre, though she did feel some genuine amusement from the fact.

She hadn't noticed a small smile threatened the side of Carth's mouth. "No, I suppose not." He said nodding thoughtfully. "But it's true, nonetheless. That courageous stubbornness came from her mother's side of the family – they had all been members of a police force or another. Her father was more approachable than her mother because of it." He explained at length. "She'd been in active service for thirteen years before I met her. We argued over politics and opinions for a time – hated each other, actually – since we were of two very different mindsets on the matters of galactic peace." He smiled outright then. It softened his features enough that he almost looked handsome. "She changed me from a warrior to a true soldier. And I changed her from a hard-nosed criminal detective to someone who could open up and..." He stopped, the words failing to leave his mouth.

"Trust." Fal finished for him.

She reached across the table and took the commander's hand. "You can't stop trusting everyone because of a single man's doing." She said quietly.

He bristled at the touch and the words. "Why not?" He asked bitterly. "It's a valuable lesson to learn. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice…"

Fal was silent for a moment and waited for the commander to look at her, her cyan eyes boring into him. "Because then he's won and he'll have broken you, Carth – the man Parveena fell in love with will be gone and you know it." She let go of his hand. "Don't let him. Duty is one thing, but to so without any hope or connection with others is a horrible way to live."

"Your bill, ma'm." Said the server, abruptly coming up to see the two of them.

Carth visibly jumped at the sight of her, but Fal had noticed the woman out of the corner of her eyes many steps before she had actually reached the table.

Fal gave the woman her credit-chit and she swiped it. Showing the resulted funds transferred on the machine to the master corporal, Fal nodded and took back her chit.

She looked back at Carth and he was regarding her with a curious expression.

She smiled. "What?" She said mischievously. "I've managed some wisdom in the last few years, commander." She said gently. "I've been at the other end of where you're going and I'm telling you it's going to suck if you get to the end of that path."

After a few moments of contemplation, Carth nodded feverently. "Alright," he said after a deep breath. "I can't promise to stop being suspicious, but I'll try to be… better."

Fal nodded, her eyes kind. "I wouldn't expect you to change in seconds, but if you let up a little on making it seem like we're being spied on all the time, that'd be nice."

Carth looked dubious. "But…we are being spied on all the time." He said, nodding towards the off duty officer.

Fal shook her head. "She not spying on us; she spying on everyone. We're too far away for her to hear – especially with the background noise and music. Plus, the short-range scrambler Klf built yesterday for us won't let her hear anything that picks up sound waves anyways."

Carth glared at her. "You can't know that." He said, gaze quickly wheeling back to the off-duty officer.

Fal looked at her again, though she did so out of the corner of her eye.

The blond haired human woman was looking at a pazzak game that was turning a little violent. She was smirking at the conflict and looked ready to join the fray. There was something else about the woman that bothered the master corporal and when Fal found herself focusing on it – whatever it was – she felt like it was an itch in the back of her head that she somehow couldn't scratch.

"Let me try something." Said Fal, allowing her instinct to scratch the itch take hold of her caution and throw it out of her mind. She attempted to make the woman the focal point of all her thoughts.

"What?" Carth looked at her cautiously, but didn't press her as she looked like her concentration was on no one but the blond woman.

Falcara took a few long breaths, allowing her steady herself into the focal point of the woman. First, she let the sounds mute one by one: first the music; then any background noise; then the voices – one by one until the world was silent. Her eyes glazed over as she focused on the blond who slowly picked up her drink and drained its contents. The slowness of the motion became more and more prominent and soon, it seemed the woman wasn't moving at all – none of the world around Fal was. She listened then, feeling a tiny connection to the woman's mind through the force.

_I hate these 'off-duty' hours. If Barken thinks I'm going to let him kick me down here whenever he pleases, I'll see the bones in his fingers broken one by one. What is he doing sending so many troops down into the Undercity anyways? He's loosing more than he can send in effectiveness. There can't be more than a handful of pods left. Bastilla is either dead or one of these pitiful gangs is going to ransom her up on platter for the highest bidder. When that happens, we'll just go in and kill everyone and take the Jedi as a prize for Lord Malak. Why does he insist on wasting my time with this sneaking around nonsense? I haven't had a good fight in months! Sending me on these needless spying missions is just insulting – I haven't caught a single Republic supporter, much less a soldier. They're either dead or captured by now; just like their Jedi Commander._

Fal let the breath she'd been holding at the same time as the connection and it snapped. She shook her head violently. "She's a Sith spy – looking for people like us. They haven't found Bastilla yet, but their looking in the pods in the Undercity."

Carth looked at her dubiously. "You know that just from looking at her?"

Fal shrugged. "The Force is a wondrous thing."

He was giving her that dubious look again and bit her lip for a better answer. "I didn't know it would work, alright? But it did because she's not guarding her thoughts very well and she's frustrated from being out of action for so long, so it's easy to pick up on her surface thoughts from here because she's not paying attention."

Carth raised an eyebrow. "What am I thinking of right now?" He asked, crossing his arms at her and looking stoic.

Falcara glared at him. "Sticking your head in my breasts." She guessed deadpanned with another shrug.

Carth raised the other eyebrow. "You are good." He teased, a dashing smile appearing to dazzle her.

Fal let her mouth drop at him. "You can make jokes?" She said in shock, placing a hand over her heart dramatically. "That seems impossible."

But Carth got to his feet rather than continue the game. "It's possible, I assure you. I can, on occasion, as long as there are beautiful women such as yourself about, be good company. We, however, better start looking to get into the Undercity without alerting every Sith in the Lower city."

"I like the sound of that." Said Fal, hopping to his side enthusiastically; a grin across her face that threatened to cut her head in two.

Carth rolled his eyes, but he smiled none-the-less. "What? The fact that we need to avoid getting caught by the Sith, or that you're beautiful?"

Fal gasped dramatically, holding her hand against her breast. "Are you flirting with me? By the Force, I might faint!"

Carth chuckled. "Not really. Is there something else you'd like me to call you by?"

Fal raised her eyebrows up and down. "How about 'gorgeous'?" She propped her chin up on the table and posed voluptuously for the Commander.

(TO BE CONTINUED)

A.N.

_Carth's wife never got described in the game so I had her have some kind of character. Dustil gets more description in this too: YAY!_

_Yes, I know Telos was apparently just a 'pretty luxury planet' before the Jedi Civil War, but I felt it needed to be destroyed for a reason other than being a pretty place – seriously? What is the tactical reason for killing a planet?_

_Make no mistake: We'll be coming back to that warrior vs soldier thing… Hint: Fal does not agree with Carth… but Canderous won't like her opinion either. :D Gods, I love conflict._

_I really do like Mission for all her teenagerness makes me cringe 90% percent of the time I played the game. It was cool how you could play big sister/brother in the game though, so I always had a soft-spot for her and I her character could have been soooo much more than it was._

_Zalbar will have his day soon – ye gods, I love wookie culture. So will Canderous J. Patience is required._

_Title of the Chapter refers to a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay's Sonnet XI and has more to do with Carth's emotions than Fals, but I felt it was appropriate for the content that was revealed here._

_Andraste's tits, I need to stop writing chapters that are more than 8000 words though… :S_

_Happy New Year!_


End file.
